


Just a normal internship

by sarcasmismyweapon



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), Spider-Man - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Bucky Barnes Needs a Hug, Bucky Barnes Recovering, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Hurt Peter Parker, Hurt/Comfort, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Precious Peter Parker, Protective Steve Rogers, Protective Tony Stark, Secret Identity, Secret Identity Fail, Snarky Tony Stark, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Does What He Wants
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-19
Updated: 2020-03-08
Packaged: 2021-02-26 08:06:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 37,067
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22321987
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sarcasmismyweapon/pseuds/sarcasmismyweapon
Summary: Tony's brokered a deal for Steve and by extension Bucky after the events of Civil war. The men come to the avengers compound to serve their time under his watchful gaze, there's only one problem, Tony doesn't trust Bucky as far as his suit can throw the man. So Tony has to keep Peter's identity as Spider-man a secret should be easy, the kids his intern after all.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes & Peter Parker, James "Bucky" Barnes & Steve Rogers, Peter Parker & Steve Rogers, Peter Parker & Tony Stark, Steve Rogers & Tony Stark
Comments: 101
Kudos: 574
Collections: Avidreaders Avengers completed faves, Avidreaders Spiderman completed faves





	1. Welcome home inmates

**Author's Note:**

> So I suddenly got the inspiration to do this rather than finish other works...So this now exists and I'm not behind in other projects XD.

Tony glanced down at his watch impatiently, tapping his foot a few times before nodding upon his ears finally registering the sounds of the jet. “About time.” He muttered, adjusting his sunglasses as he looked up to watch the jet's descent onto the helipad. He idly stood by while the craft came to a stop, its engines humming into a dull rolling sound as they began to wind down. The jets hatch came open, the long ramp falling open and revealing the figures who had been brought to the compound. Clint, Sam, Steve, and Bucky, though he wasn’t too happy with the bargain he’d made for that one.

Tony took a deep breath at the sight of them, right, time to put on his game face. “You’re late.” The looks he received in return had him smiling, yeah, he still had it. “Come on, we’re doing a roll call in the hanger.” Tony abruptly twisted about and headed in the direction of the hanger well aware that the others would either follow behind him or catch up so as to walk with him and chat. 

There hadn’t been much conversation between everyone since they were pardoned or rather as close to being pardoned as one could when they were wanted by damn near every country in the world. Granted Tony had talked with Steve a handful of times but it had always been a bit curt, down to business. The billionaire couldn’t help but hope that having the worst of it behind them, everyone closer to home might change things, he missed the team though he’d never admit that out loud. He fully intended to make a series of quips about renting out their rooms despite knowing that only Steve and Bucky were physically staying at the compound. Tony considered it fare given what they’d forced him to go through.

Stepping foot inside the hanger, Tony twisted about to address everyone only for his eyes to glance above the door in passing. He smirked but returned his gaze to those who had just walked inside. “Shut the door.” Tony smiled as he watched Clint huff but turn to do just that. God he loved doing things like that. “We all here? No one’s skipping class are they?”

Steve sighed, he should have known that this would be how things went. He sent a look towards Bucky, the man was being steadfastly silent, wary of Tony which made sense given the terms of his release. Steve cleared his throat. “Tony, we’re here, what do you want?”

“Well to do roll call, weren’t you listening?” Tony tilted his head when the glowers he got intensified he waved his hand. “Fine, fine...Here’s the rundown. New security, top secret I’m sure you’ll all figure it out given I left manuals in your rooms...And for those of you not staying with us...Take a photo cause you’re going to need it. Also, the rooms have changed.” Tony shrugged. “Bit of a remodel job done a whim of necessity.”

“Whim of necessity?” Clint frowned. “What do you mean by that?”

Tony smiled. “I have a pest problem, had to work it out.”

“There’s bugs?” Sam questioned. “I thought this was top of the line.” He sent a calculated look towards Steve. 

Steve shook his head, already well aware that Tony was lying. “Not that type of bugs...Tony, what’s really going on?”

“Just wanted to lay down the law is all,” Tony replied coolly gliding right over Steve’s question. “You’ll all get synced up to Friday again, have all the fancy-schmancy intergrades that will allow you to play with things in the compound.” He stopped to point at Clint. “Do not mess with the targeting systems again Barton, just because I’m releasing you to the ever-present threat of your wife's revenge doesn’t mean I won’t come out to that podunk farm of yours to make you pay for it.”

Clint smirked. “Alright.”

“I mean it, there’s a taser in that now.” Tony pointed out for the man's benefit despite secretly wanting to see how that turned out. “And it’s enough to make a grown man piss himself, so don’t do it unless you’re prepared for me to send the footage to your wife and everyone in shield.” The firmness in his tone just made Clint smirk more so Tony figured it hadn’t stuck in the man's head just yet that he was serious, that was fine Friday recorded everything. Shaking his own, Tony smiled back at Steve before waving a hand between the soldier and the assassin next to him. “You’re officially bunk buddies.”

Steve smirked, hadn’t really thought they wouldn’t be given Tony's suspicion about Bucky but he still answered Tony. “That’s fine Tony.”

“And he has a curfew.”

Steve sighed. “That’s fine.” Nothing that they hadn’t anticipated, he’d already talked to Bucky about how this might go. It was still better than dealing with the fallout of seeking asylum elsewhere. He’d wanted Bucky to be able to come home, so they’d made a deal. Granted, Tony’s add ons weren’t going to be much help but it was the price to pay to keep Bucky safe.

“Also, he is not allowed in the armory.” Tony sent a look towards the frowning man. “No boom boom stuff.”

Bucky scowled, sending Steve a look that said ‘really?’

Steve smiled, chuckling a bit before replying to Tony. “Tony, we get it alright? You’re going to be watching us.”

“Him.” Tony pointed sharply. “I have to worry about you as much as a girl scout selling cookies. He, on the other hand, has a habit of hostile takeovers which may include the girl scouts, I don’t know...Was that on the list? I stopped reading after the tenth line.”

Bucky sucked in a sharp breath at the man’s tauntings, allowing Steve to come to his aid as he chose not to speak up. “Tony!”

“Alright.” Tony waved a dismissive hand at Steve when the man became enraged by his off-handed remark. “I won’t pick on your boyfriend. For those of you who are new, there is an AI in this compound if you need anything ask her. If she says no then that means no.” Tony nodded to all of the ‘new’ People. “If she says she has to ask me, it’s a no.”

Clint snorted interrupting whatever tirade Tony was going to continue on. “Did anything important change?”

“All of this is important.” Tony pouted.

Clint shook his head not buying it, about to head off on his own to return to the room he hadn’t been in for a while. Best to get settled and then call his wife, she wasn’t too pleased with the deal he’d cut with the government but it was the best they could do to not see him in jail for the rest of his life. With any luck he could be back at the farm tomorrow, he just had to survive one night here.

“Hey, Barton! I did not say you could leave.”

Clint waved a hand to dismiss whatever complaints Tony might have only to grunt when something smacked his hand. Twisting his head to stare at it, Clint’s eyes widened just before he was yanked off of his feet and pulled back towards Tony. Kicking and cursing Clint tried to twist over so he could get back to his feet to wrench whatever it was that had wrapped itself around his hand when he came to a sliding stop a few feet from Tony did the man smile at him. “I didn’t excuse you yet.”

“What the hell man?” Clint climbed to his feet about to start trying to get the stuff off of him, only to look up in surprise alongside everyone else when a voice said.

“Don’t touch it if you want to keep the other hand.”

All eyes went skyward only to find a familiar form hanging upside down from the ceiling. 

“What the fuck?!”

“Language Barton.” Tony tsked the man before calling up to the kid. “Good work kid.”

Peter gave him a mock salute before telling the archer. “I wouldn’t do-You did it anyway.” The teen grumbled only to watch on as Hawkeye managed to get both his hands stuck in the webbing as he’d pulled on it to free his original hand.

Tony laughed, shaking his head. “Should have listened to him. Wow that sucks, hope you don’t need to pee anytime soon.” Tony chuckled sending another thumbs up to the teen.

“What’s he doing here?” Bucky glared up at the person who he distinctly remembered at the airport.

“I could ask the same thing of you terminator, but I’m not so maybe don’t?” Tony smiled in a condescending way.

Steve sighed, patting Bucky’s back before addressing the figure that was still hanging upside down just like Bucky he remembered him. “Queens right?” Everyone stared at Steve in confusion before the figure above them laughed.

“Yep!”

Nodding Steve smirked before sending Tony a ‘really?’ look, Tony shrugged in response. “What’s his angle?”

“Right now, upside down so technically 90 degrees.” Tony glanced upwards. “Kid make sure you’re at a 90-degree angle I hate being made a liar.”

“Umm...Okay?” Came the confused response.

Tony smiled as the teen fidgeted where he was presently hanging. “Now, back to what we were talking about, to begin with.” Tony sent the still captured Clint an amused look. “Passcodes exist and will be updated constantly so be prepared to have a sticky note with numbers on it.”

“Is this place really not that secure?” Sam sent a confused look towards Tony. “Steve said your place was damn near impossible to get into.”

“Oh, it is.” Tony agreed.

“Then-” The man paused when Tony suddenly pointed upwards, they all looked up at the figure looming above them who wasn’t moving and then back down to Tony. “What’s he gotta do with it?”

Tony smiled. “Kid?”

They all heard the deep exhalation before a muttered. “I didn’t mean to do it.”

“And there’s your answer.” Tony clapped his hands together. “Great, now that we have the introductions out of the way lets go onto the tour.”

“Did you do this to Nat?” Clint muttered as he tugged futilely at his trapped hands.

Tony scoffed. “Please...She threatened to do mean things so I let her off the hook...She’s technically not in trouble so long as she stays with Shield until this all blows over...So she’s their problem.”

Clint smirked even as he continued to struggle with his hands, he sent a baleful look towards the masked individual who was responsible for his tied up hands when Tony called out for him to follow along. The man seemingly just jumped from the ceiling, but that wasn’t true. Another strand of whatever it was that tied his hands was hanging there, the man had literally just slid down like it was a fire mans pole.

“What is this stuff?” He growled at the masked man.

Peter sent a careful look to the archer, Mr. Stark had said not to engage too much, that he wanted to lay down the rules before actually introducing him. He was just supposed to follow along, but the question was easy enough. “Oh...Yeah, that...Well the first ingredient is polyvinyl acetate which is just a starting point really, nothing fancy since its all biodegradable polymers that bin-”

“What?” Clint sent the man a confused expression. “I asked what it is?”

“That’s what it is.” Peter defended, pointing at the web fluid that was tying the man’s hands together.

“Kid, he doesn’t do the sciencey stuff.” Tony smiled at Clint. “It’s glue.”

Clint huffed at the dumbed-down version of the stuff that was holding him hostage. “Strongest glue I’ve ever encountered.”

Tony laughed. “You’re lucky its only your hands Barton.” The genius waved his hand. “No talking with the convict's kid, go.” He pointed ahead of them.

Sighing Peter shrugged to the confused members of the Avengers and ran off ahead of them. Once he was sure that Peter was...Away, Tony addressed the group once more. “So, you’re going to see him from time to time. No, he does not live here.” He sent a knowing look to Steve as he’d known that would be the man's first question. “No, you may not play with him.” He added just for fun.

“Who is he?” Sam threw out before Tony could continue his tirades, something that he was coming to understand Steve hadn’t lied about.

Tony hummed, tilted his head a bit as he considered how to answer that, ultimately stating. “He’s my intern.”

“Intern?” Clint laughed. “Seriously?”

Tony gave a nod, a very serious nod. “Now, if you look to your left you’ll see the newly upgraded elevator system that will take you to any of the five levels that you’re not allowed on. If it has a red button do not touch it.”

Sam chuckled as the man began to give a break down of things they weren’t allowed to touch, all the while making a point of showing them off. Leaning over to Steve, he questioned. “Is this normal?”

Steve smiled. “Yeah.” It really was, and it was amazing to witness once more. He’d missed this casual method to Tony’s rantings. It felt like home hearing the man rambling about things like the old days, he sent a cautious look towards Bucky who was scowling now though it wasn’t directed to anyone in particular. Steve knew the man felt out of place, he couldn’t blame him there but it was best for everyone that they just settle in and adjust. Even if that meant that he and Bucky would have to put up with Tony’s lancing remarks about the man’s history.

“Goddammit this stuff does not come off,” Clint growled as he continued to pull at his hands.

Sam snorted. “Yeah, we got to experience that before.” He gestured to himself and Bucky, the assassin nodded his head, he remembered that altercation with the masked man.

“It sucks.” The others snorted at that, they were well aware.

“And here we are.” Tony’s voice drew everyone’s attention to the new room they were standing in, it was large, windows all around except for one wall that was made of stone. A large TV was mounted surrounded by couches and chairs.

“This is the living room, it should be easy to see why.” Tony pointed to the other side of the room. “That is the kitchen, appropriately placed because of the living room.” He then made a show of walking around the island to the fridge where he opened it, pulled out a small container that looked like a juice box and showed it. “These are off-limits.”

“Seriously?” Sam uttered. “ A juice box?”

Tony smiled back at the befuddled man. “It’s not juice, it’s a high protein-sugar amalgamation of calories.”

“Why?” Sam scowled. “Are you training for something?”

Tony chuckled at the man’s assumptions for why he had it, shaking his head he threw it up into the air only for it to be snapped up by web. Everyone's eyes went to the man who Tony had dismissed earlier once more once more found on the ceiling. He’d retrieved the beverage and was in the process of poking the straw through the little hole as they all watched.

“They’re for him.” 

Sam nodded his head, frowning at the absurdity of it all as he watched the figure pull up his mask just enough to feed the straw into his mouth and begin to drink the boxed fluid all while upside down. “How in the hell?”

“He’s special.” Tony smiled. “So, no touchy.” He waved his finger at all of them before twisting to tell the kid. “Do not drop that on the couch.”

Peter snorted around his drink, letting the straw fall out of his mouth to retort. “That was Happy’s fault.” Tony held his gaze. “What? It was.”

Shaking his head Tony turned his attention once more to the group who were still watching Peter in rapt fascination as the kid had a snack. “Alright...Well, the goons have no doubt gotten your luggage unloaded from the jet so I’ll leave you all to unpack. Rooms are that way, I’m sure you can figure out who goes where.” Tony sent a smile towards Sam. “I understand that you’re not even staying the night with us, so to that effect, goodbye.”

Sam chuckled at the somewhat cold dismissal, watching on in amusement as Steve informed Tony that he needed access to the compound because he had signed on as Bucky’s therapist.

“Seriously?” Tony glanced from Sam to Bucky, sighing he shrugged. “Fine.” He stated in a laborious tone. “Friday print him a security card.” Tony pointed towards the man. “That will get you access pretty much whenever but if you touch anything that has a no touchy sticker on it you get expelled.”

Sam smirked at the threat. “I’ll make sure to be careful.”

“Good.” Tony nodded. “Doors that way.” Tony pointed down the hallway from where they’d come. Then for an added measure called out to Peter. “Escort him out underoos.”

Peter sighed choosing to ignore how numerous people questioned the ‘underoos’ part of Mr. Stark's order but nodded his head. “Alright.” Peter dropped from the ceiling, bouncing on his heels after flipping mid-air to land on his feet. The teen walked over and threw the juice box into the garbage throwing out a small. “See.” That got Tony’s attention.

“Cute. Go.” He pointed sharply.

Peter shook his head jogging over to the man who he was escorting out of the compound. “Make sure to get him the right keycard I don’t want misprints.”

“Yeah-Yeah I know.” Peter huffed as he walked beside the chuckling Sam Wilson.

“So...You work for Stark?”

Peter stilled internally, questions were bad. He wasn’t supposed to answer questions. “Umm...So the keycard system is pretty easy to use and if you get confused Friday can help. Just ask and she can point you in the right direction.-”

Sam smirked as the man began to ramble, he couldn’t wait to hear from Steve and Bucky how the first night went.

**********

Tony sighed in relief, he’d left the others to start unpacking, finding seclusion in his private office. He had seen through Friday’s cameras that Sam Wilson had been taken by one of the drivers towards the city where his pre-arranged living accommodations had been made. Why the man chose to live in the city instead of a top of the line facility when he’d be coming back to work on Bucky’s brain everyday he wasn’t sure. But people were weird, Tony smiled when there was a light thump behind him. “Didn’t say too much did you?”

“No.” The petulant remark had Tony twisting about.

“You did good kid, I’ll give proper introductions in a day or two...Month tops.”

Peter groaned. “Why that long? They’re going to ask questions Mr. Stark and you said I couldn’t answer questions.”

“I know.”

Peter huffed at the smirk his mentor was wearing. “I said I was sorry about the elevator.”

Tony chuckled when the teen was under the impression that he was being punished. “I know you are and this has nothing to do with the elevator.” Given the slanting of the masks eyelids, it was apparent the kid didn’t believe him. “At least not entirely why.”

“Figures,” Peter muttered under his breath.

Tony shook his head amused at the boy's petulant remark. “Look, kid, you know they’ve been gone a while now and we got new people who are coming and going. I wanna make sure people are gonna stick...And not because of you.” He joked.

“Ha ha,” Peter remarked. “I thought they all had to stay here.”

“Well...Had to is a loose term kid, Clint can go back home to his wife who is no doubt going to be a harder warden than I ever could be. He’s gonna have an ankle monitor for a while before he’s allowed off the chain. Natasha’s with Shield so there’s no worries there...Ant-man.” Tony snorted at the name. “Is facing the same terms as Clint, he’s back at home already. Sam’s got a looser term do to his past service record and the fact that Steve made me vouch for him.” Tony muttered that last part, technically he knew the man was a good guy it just irked him still that Steve dragged the man into this debacle. Kinda how he hated having to bring Peter into it. Shaking his head to clear his rampant thoughts, Tony answered the kid's question. “As for the other two...They don’t have to stay here provided a jail cell sounds good to them.”

“Ouch.”

Tony gave a nod. “Yeah they done screwed the pooch, but we’ve worked out a deal and everything will be scraped under the rug provided they can get by on good behavior.”

“How long are they stuck in the compound?”

Tony took a deep breath as he considered the curious teen's question, technically the sentence for Steve was pretty lax providing that he followed Tony’s rules to stay at the compound, do his community service gig of making apologetic statements, and stayed out of the spotlight for the foreseeable future. He had no desire to police the man in town despite Steve technically having the approval to wander about. Bastard didn’t even have to wear an ankle monitor because everyone trusted Tony to keep him on a firm chain. “Steve’s a bit of a complicated matter, but he won’t be wandering much seeing as his compadre isn’t. Bucky’s got a long term kid, almost like a life sentence which is more painful for me than him at this point since I’m responsible for the pair of them. He’s not going to be leaving the compound for a few months, and afterward...We’ll see.” Tony shrugged, he wasn’t about to let the man loose on the town if he wasn’t sure his head wasn’t put together with more than duct tape.

Peter gave a hasty nod. “ I can help...I mean, I’m here a lot so-”

Tony smiled at the boy's offer, that was just so Peter, always wanting to help. “That’s nice of you spider-boy but I have Friday and she records everything so I’ll be good there.”

“It’s Spider-man.”

Tony chuckled he’d done that on purpose. “How old are you again? Got your first chest hair yet?”

Peter sighed at the man’s taunting choosing wisely to move on. “What about them asking about me?”

Tony waved a careless hand at the concerned teen that had wisely chosen to move forward away from the topic of his age issues. “Don’t worry about it kid, all I want you to worry about at the moment is not getting yourself revealed. So long as it doesn’t come from your end we’re good, I can handle it.”

“So I should just go home.” Peter nodded because that was just about the only way that he saw any of this going well.

“No.” Tony scoffed at the boy's attempt to get off easy by avoiding everything. “This is your home too kid, sure you might not crash here that often but it is. I want it to be.” Tony abridged with a quick cough. “They can’t chase you off kid and they’re adults just tell them to mind their own business or walk away.”

“That’s not-I can’t just do that.”

“Sure you can, you’re always giving me lip should be easy to do it to them.” Tony shrugged. 

“I don’t do that.” Peter tried to defend himself.

Tony cleared his throat. “No Mr. Stark I didn’t hit the green button that was blinking.” He poorly mimed the teen's voice.

Peter flinched at the man’s poor imitation of himself. “That...Wasn’t me giving you lip.”

Tony arched a brow. “Are you sure Mr. Stark? Maybe you misplaced it, yeah...The whole button. You probably just forgot, you do that.”

“Should I just go? Cause home is sounding good now.”

Tony chuckled reaching over to pat the kid on the shoulder. “Gotta tough it out kid, we’re stuck here as much as they are. Just hold your ground and you’ll be fine...And if that fails just go onto the ceiling, they can’t get you there.”

Peter snickered at that. “True.”

Tony nodded, pleased to hear that their little talk had done some good. “Alright, great talk...Go out there and bother some convicts for me.” Tony shoved the kid out into the compound.

“But-But Mr. Stark-” Peter slouched his shoulders when the man closed the door to his office all the while shouting out that Mr. Stark wasn’t in at the moment and to leave a message. “So mean,” Peter remarked to the closed door, huffing he twisted about and made to wander the compound. He wasn’t set to go home until five, aunt May and Mr. Stark had arranged it that way cause she was worried about him being alone too much. Considering what he got up to every day that seemed pretty stupid, but he wasn’t about to tell aunt May that.

**********

Bucky scowled at the room, there was nothing wrong with it, in fact, it was pretty damn nice compared to a lot of the places he’d stayed while on the run. It was just the fact that he was now trapped in the compound, under Stark's rules that bothered him. Chaffed at him despite knowing that the man had every right to demand his life, that was probably why it bothered him now that he thought about it. As the winter soldier, he’d killed the man’s parents, made him an orphan and yet all these years later he was giving him a place to stay?

“Bucky it’ll be alright?”

Bucky twisted to see Steve smiling at him even as he was in the process of putting some clothes away in the closet of their room. “I didn’t say it wouldn’t.” Was his gruff response.

“I know you and you’ve been glaring at the bed for almost a half an hour,” Steve smirked. “So it’s safe to say that you’re thinking about it.”

Flushing a bit at having been so lost in his own thoughts to do something so stupid, Bucky twisted sharply away from the man and grabbed his duffle. He might as well start unpacking since neither of them was allowed off the premises without consent from Stark. Bucky had no intention of asking for such permission so it was wise to make himself as comfortable as he could.

Steve smiled if a bit softer as he watched Bucky begin to unpack his meager belongings, they’d gotten him some new clothes along the way which was good since the majority of his belongings were destroyed from the constant wear and tear of him fighting against people trying to take him into custody, be it Hydra or Shield. Steve truly hoped that once things were settled that Bucky could find some peace, what with Hydra basically out of the picture...Shield mopping up the mess that they’d unwittingly caused it would be easy for Bucky to live out the rest of his life in secret never having to fight again. Didn’t sound all that bad to Steve either if he was honest with himself. Sitting on his bed, with nothing else to do but talk with Bucky about what was going on around them Steve chose to ask. “So...What do you think’s up with Queens?”

Bucky looked up from his bag, a frown on his face. “Queens?”

“The guy on the ceiling...He said he was from queens when we fought at the airport.”

“Oh.” Bucky scowled down at the bedspread. “I don’t know...He’s strong.”

Steve chuckled. “I know that Buck, he got my shield away from me.”

“He caught my fist.” Bucky looked down at his metal arm. “Full-on punch and he caught it like it was nothing.”

Steve looked at the man’s prosthetic. “Huh...That’s pretty strong.”

Bucky gave a nod. “That and that stupid rope crap of his.”

Steve chuckled. “I’m pretty sure it’s supposed to be a web.” The sharp look his friend gave him had Steve explaining. “He’s a spider or at least that's what he goes by.”

Bucky couldn’t help but stop what he was doing to point out. “Thought that was widow?”

Steve laughed at the subtle confusion on the man's face. “A bit different, Natasha’s been the black widow for ages...He goes by spider-man.” The dry snort that brought from Bucky had Steve pointing out. “I’m Captain America Buck, how ironic does that get?”

“Fair.” 

Steve smiled. “Whatever his reasoning for it, he's definitely different.” Watching as Bucky commenced unpacking his bag Steve brought up something a bit more close to home. “Are you okay with Sam being your therapist?” Cause Steve knew it was more a thing of convenience for shield than anything else now that Sam was involved with them.

Bucky shrugged, he wasn’t sure how to feel about that. He didn’t want anyone else messing with his brain, but Steve had sworn it was different.

“He’s not going to hurt you...It’s more talking.”

“I don’t talk.”

Steve chuckled as his friend quickly rounded on him. “Yeah, I know you don’t Buck but you’re going to have to do that if you want to get better.”

Bucky sighed, throwing the now empty duffle onto the ground he sat on the bed with a deep furrowed look. Sure all the bad stuff was supposed to be out of his head now thanks to Shuri, but that didn’t mean he didn’t have the memories from his time as the winter soldier. That was what was really holding him back, moving on from a lifetime of servitude, killing people and unable to stop himself. Shaking his head Bucky muttered. “Talking sucks.”

Steve smiled. “You talk to me.”

Bucky hummed, he did do that, but talking to Steve was different than talking to other people. Sam wasn’t bad, he could be funny and he said what he meant the majority of the time which was something he appreciated. “I like you.”

“I’m glad to hear it.” Steve leaned back on the bed, putting his arms behind his head. “This won’t be bad Buck, we just gotta adapt is all.”

Bucky hummed, glancing towards their door when there was a thumping sound shortly followed by. “I know one of you bastards has a knife, cut me out of this shit.”

Bucky smirked, glancing back to Steve as the man lay laughing. “We weren’t allowed weapons.” He called back to the archer, this sent Steve off again just as he was catching his breath.

“Son of a bitch!” The man’s storming footsteps trailed off down the hallway.

“That was mean Buck,” Steve smirked back at his smiling friend. Bucky might not be allowed to have guns at the moment but he still had a few knives.

Bucky shrugged unrepentant for what he’d done. “He shouldn’t have touched it.”


	2. Introductions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Spider-man meets Steve and Bucky for the first time on his own. Peter's introduced to the men when he comes over for a lab day with Tony, and the two men discover that Peter can really pack away the pizza.

Peter groaned under his breath when he heard someone coming down the hallway, there was no retreating. Mr. Stark had made it clear that he couldn’t hide out in the hanger...Peter became aware of this fact by it being locked and Friday giving him a message saying he couldn’t hide out in the hanger. Mr. Stark’s exact words being ‘just go sit in the corner of a ceiling like a real spider’. Peter huffed at that but was now facing the fact that whoever was storming down the hallway was going to see him unless he chose to do something drastic. Peter did something drastic. 

The teen took a shallow breath, tensing when he saw Mr. Barton come skulking into the living room area, his hands still bound. That made him feel a bit guilty even if the man had technically done it to himself. Peter wasn’t prepared to step in however to fix that because Mr. Stark had forbidden him from answering questions and he knew for a fact that Mr. Barton would have questions if Peter was to cut him loose. Nodding to himself, Peter carefully navigated his way out of the living room all the while the archer being unaware of just how close he’d been the person responsible for his current state.

Peter sighed as he dropped to the floor once he was a safe distance down the neighboring hallway, able to breathe once more the teen figured that he’d just go to his room and work on some homework. Mr. Stark couldn’t get mad at him for doing that instead of chatting with the men who were moving back into the compound. Peter froze not a few minutes later as he made his way down the hallway where the majority of the rooms for the compound were held. Frozen as the door to his right came open, revealing an equally surprised Captain America.

“Oh, hey.”

Peter twisted sharply to face the man, backing up closer to the other wall in case the ceiling was required. “Hey.”

Steve smiled as the man backed up, he couldn’t tell if that was simply to give him space or because he feared some kind of retribution from their other encounters with each other. “Tony said you didn’t live here...Aren’t there only rooms down here?”

Peter gave a nod, that wasn’t a bad question. He could answer that question, this was something Peter had to tell himself a few times before finding his voice. In the meantime, Steve just stared at the masked figure confused by the lack of response. “Um...Yes-Yeah only rooms down here.”

Steve smirked. “Alright...So you have a room then.”

Peter gave a jerky nod, tensing more when he saw a figure looming just behind Captain America. Steve twisted when he saw the man tense, smiling at Bucky he shifted in the doorway so Bucky could stand next to him. “Just saying hi to our neighbor.”

“Thought you didn’t live here.” Bucky retorted with a glower.

Steve laughed at the same thing he’d just assumed coming up again. “Yeah, he’s got a room but doesn’t live in it?” He threw the last part out to see if he’d get a guaranteed answer.

Peter swallowed too many questions. Easy questions but questions. Peter’s spider-sense was tingling not in you’re going to die way but in you need to leave way. “Um...” Peter looked upwards when Friday suddenly spoke to him.

“Spider-man, your attendance is requested in Boss’s lounge.”

Peter huffed at that earning strange looks from both men, Peter called back. “He just slammed the door in my face ten minutes ago!”

Steve chuckled. “That’s Tony for you.”

Peter shook his head. “He’s doing in on purpose.”

“Why?” 

Peter glanced towards the still scowling assassin, it was strange to hold a conversation with either of them but now that the latter was joining the fray Peter was a bit at a loss for words. He still managed to stumble over a response though embarrassingly he recognized how suspicious he sounded. “O-Oh...Uhm...Because.” That was not a response, damn it.

Steve smirked. “Tony told you to stay away huh?” He motioned towards Bucky. “He’s not gonna bite.”

Bucky snorted, muttering something low that Steve didn’t catch but Peter did. The teen laughed, catching both men off guard.

“What’s funny?” Steve smiled.

“Um...What he said.” Peter pointed at the assassin.

Bucky tilted his head curiously. “You heard that?”

Peter swallowed, great job Parker.

“Spider-man boss would like to remind you that you haven’t updated your NDA disclosure.”

Peter groaned. “I gotta go...He’s getting mean.” 

Steve nodded, watching as the masked figure trudged back down the hallway calling overhead. “Tell him I’m coming.”

“Weird.” Steve glanced back to Bucky who was scowling after the figure. “He heard me.”

“Guess he’s got good hearing.” 

Bucky sent an unimpressed look towards his friend. “You’re standing right next to me and didn’t hear.” He pointed sharply to the far wall. “He heard me from over there.”

Steve hummed. “So he’s got really good hearing.” The super soldier glanced back down the hallway but the masked figure was already out of sight. “Wonder why Tony’s keeping such a tight lid on him.”

Bucky snorted. “Cause I bite.”

Steve laughed at his friends depreciating humor. “You do not.” Steve followed Bucky back into their room, his earlier quest for a glass of water delayed once more as he conversed with his friend about Tony’s habits of taunting people. It was something that Steve knew he’d have to remind Bucky about since it appeared that Tony wasn’t above threatening his own teammates, let alone Bucky.

*********

Peter scowled at the door that had once more been shut in his face after a crisp warning from Mr. Stark was uttered. “Rude.” Twisting about the teen muttered to himself. “Karen, how long do I have left?”

“You currently have two hours and fifteen minutes before you’re to be sent home.”

Peter nodded his head, that was a good chunk of time to kill. “By chance, did Mr. Stark lock me out of the training room?”

“I’ll check with Friday.”

Peter hummed as he started on his way towards the area of the compound, it’d either unlock for him or it wouldn’t. He could always retreat to one of the labs if it proved that Mr. Stark was feeling particularly mean today. “It is unlocked.”

Peter sighed. “Awesome.”

********

Tony was admittedly surprised in how easy the first day went, dinner was a silent affair after he’d called in a massive order of Chinese food. Not that he was surprised to find that Bucky retreated to his and Steve’s room, quickly followed by Steve himself. Clint wandered to the couch to watch TV, with Peter already at home left Tony time to escape to his lab. It was best for everyone if they treaded carefully around each other, he was sure they’d find a rhythm eventually but at the moment even he was on guard. More so about Bucky’s placement at the compound, and yeah he’d heard from Steve and read the reports from Wakanda about their mind magic stuff...It didn’t mean he bought it. Whatever he was, Bucky had been the winter soldier, the person who was responsible for his family's death and countless others. The cause of the strife between him and his team, there were a lot of reasons for Tony to hate the man. It was only because he knew how much Bucky meant to Steve that he’d brokered a deal for them, knowing it was the only way to get Steve back at the compound and he could really use the man's help...Once things settled down of course.

Sighing as he fell into the beaten-down couch in his lab, Tony called out. “Friday, did Peter get home alright?”

“Yes boss, Karen went offline approximately fifteen minutes after signaling arrival at his apartment.”

Nodding his head Tony smiled. “Good work kid, you actually did what I told you.”

“Karen also left a message with me.”

Tony smirked, getting comfortable as he knew this would be good he called out. “Let me hear it.”

“I’m not dropping by tomorrow...They cornered me in a hallway! I can’t climb walls if they can reach the ceiling Mr. Stark.”

Tony laughed at the boy's tirade, he admitted that he’d been a bit wary of the whole altercation even if it had appeared casual. It had been instinct alone that had him calling the kid back to his office only to coolly dismiss him again. Hearing it from the kid's perspective was rather amusing.

“So...I’m staying at home or going on patrol...Something else...Elsewhere, from there.”

Tony rolled his eyes at the eloquent speech the teen was giving. “Also...Thanks for fixing the wall in the training room and...I kinda broke it again.”

Tony huffed. “Honestly Parker how hard is it to use it as a wall? That’s what it is, not a personal jungle gym meant to take blows from your super-human fists.” Shaking his head the genius muttered. “I’m not fixing it until he figures out how to stop breaking it.” Realizing how that wouldn’t work Tony abridged. “Er...Until he admits to breaking the storage locker.” Nodding to himself about having a solid plan, Tony waved his hand in the air to signal Friday to continue if there was anything left in the message.

“So...Yeah, I’ll see you later Mr. Stark, I gotta go aunt May’s calling me and I know she’s going to have bad questions about everything.” The deep sigh that radiated after had Tony smirking. “Bye.”

“Kid doesn’t seem to realize that it’s not a voicemail.” Tony quipped aloud. “Alright, Friday make sure to have Karen remind him that he doesn’t get to cop out of our one on one time, he’s to be here promptly at five o'clock on the dot and that YES I expect him to stay the night as we’re working on the new power source in his suit.”

“I will make sure the message is delivered.”

“Good girl Fri.” Tony rolled to his feet and clapped his hands. “Now, what can I do to avoid going back upstairs?”

*********

It was a rough start to their first official day at the compound, Bucky had a nightmare and wasn’t in the mood to deal with Tony or really anyone but Steve. And only if Steve stayed quiet and didn’t ask stupid questions something that Bucky had made sure to announce quite clearly to the man.

“They weren’t stupid questions you know.” Steve held up his hands when that got him a glare from the assassin. “Alright...I’m going to go grab some breakfast for us alright? We can chill out in here.”

Bucky gave a nod, that was fine. Steve smiled back at him before rising and heading for the door, opening it to step into the hallway he turned to regard his friend who was curled up in the corner of his bed watching the room at large in a heated manner. Sighing Steve shut the door and made his way towards the kitchen. 

“God we gotta figure out that schedule with Sam.” It was on the list of things that Steve had to do, besides making official statements for himself and Bucky as Steve knew he couldn’t leave it to Bucky to make an appropriate statement about what went on with himself. But first thing, breakfast. Walking into the kitchen found Clint folded over a bowl of cereal, looking half asleep despite a cold cup of coffee sitting next to him. Steve smirked at the man but didn’t bother to talk to him as he was well aware that the archer wasn’t a morning person unless it was related to a mission.

Making a simple breakfast for himself and Bucky wasn’t hard, neither of them were picky eaters, came from a life of living as the poor during a war. Tray in hand, Steve made his way back towards the bedroom only to come up short when he saw Natasha. “Nat.”

She looked up from the tablet she was glaring into, smirking. “Hey.” She walked up and gave him a side hug before stealing the banana on his tray earning her an unapproving glower in return. Chuckling the woman peeled it and began to eat all the while asking. “Get settled in?”

“Yeah...Tony was welcoming as always.”

She snorted. “Please, there’s a reason I chose to avoid orientation.” Steve chuckled at that so she figured she wasn’t wrong in her assessment that Tony had been a nuisance. “So where’s your shadow?”

Steve’s features tightened a bit before he said. “In bed.” A quirk of the woman’s brow had him admitting. “Nightmares.”

“Ah.” She nodded. “Breakfast in bed should help.” She winked to him, patted him on the shoulder and went on her way with only a simple. “I’m going to go grab my partner in crime so you two will have the place to yourselves. Tony’s going to be in his lab all day with the intern.”

Steve twisted. “Wait, he actually has an intern?”

Natasha twirled around raising a brow as she chewed a piece of the banana. “Yeah, didn’t you know?”

Steve shrugged. “He was taunting us the other day about Spider-man being his intern so I just figured that it was all just Tony being Tony.” The smirk on Natasha’s face had Steve frowning. “You know something.”

“I know a lot of things.” She quipped without giving anything away. “You’ll like his intern, cute kid, rambles a lot but is a verifiable genius like Tony.”

Huffing at being dismissed by the woman he called back. “Clint’s not awake! Good luck!” Steve smirked when he heard a muttered curse in Russian. Natasha knew first hand how tough it could be to get Clint off his ass and into some form of awareness if it wasn’t life or death in the morning. Feeling a bit better for his altercation with the woman, Steve came to the door of his bedroom and called back. “Just me Buck.” Opening the door with a bit of maneuvering Steve stepped inside and shut the door with a quick motion of his foot.

Bucky sighed, unfolding himself from the tight form he’d maintained for the last few hours, allowing Steve into his space to set the tray down and sit across from him.

“I had a banana but Natasha stole it.” That at least earned him a flicker of a smile.

“She’s back?”

“Seems so, at least for the morning I think she’s taking Clint home.” Grabbing his own bowl of oatmeal, Steve remarked. “Turns out Tony wasn’t pulling our leg yesterday. He does have an intern.”

Bucky frowned. “So?”

Steve shrugged. “Odd that he’d say that Spider-man was his intern when he clearly isn’t.”

“He’s weird.”

Steve chuckled as he watched Bucky take an angry bite of his oatmeal as if it’d personally offended him. “He is...Nat says we’ll like the kid though.” Bucky snorted, not taking it to heart Steve added. “Says he rambles a lot but that he’s smart.”

“He is with Stark.”

“True.” Steve nodded, any kid who could keep up with Tony had to be smart.

*********

Peter grumbled in the back seat of the car, giving a pitiful look to Happy when the man sent him a grin from the front seat. “Not so happy for the lab session huh?”

“He said I can’t answer questions!”

Happy chuckled at the poor teen. “That was as Spider-man, you’re not Spider-man today Pete.”

“True.” Peter looked out the window. “But that just means that I’ll constantly be worried about saying something that’ll show that I am Spider-man.” Peter made a moaning sound. “He’s doing this on purpose Happy!”

The man laughed. “Oh, I know it kid.” He’d dealt with Tony’s behavior for a long time it didn’t surprise him that he was choosing to do this to Peter. “He say it was cause of the elevator?”

“I apologized!”

Happy chuckled. “He said it was cause of the elevator.” He nodded to himself.

“Happy!”

*********

Tony hummed as he waited in the living room, Peter was going to come in drop off his stuff and then they’d head on down into the lab. He’d been firmly told by Steve not to say a single word to Bucky as the man was having a ‘bad’ day. The pair were on one of the couches at the moment and Tony couldn’t help but notice that the assassin looked like he did every day. Pissed off at the world, rolling his eyes Tony bit his tongue but only because Steve kept sending him looks that said to do so. 

The sounds of sneakers running had him sighing, kicking off of the island that he’d been leaning against Tony remarked. “And that would be the kid running in the halls. Again.” Shaking his head Tony twisted just as Peter came running in breathless. “Kid how many times do I have to tell you not to run in the halls? Like, this is a thing they do at school right?” Peter made to reply only to be prevented from saying anything by Mr. Stark continuing. “And if that’s true then you shouldn’t you know better? I mean you don’t run in the lab and that’s like A+ quality there kid cause of all the dangerous stuff but why the regular halls? Do you just like scuffing up the floor?”

Peter sighed, looking down at his sneakers and then to the floor before remarking as his bad slid off his shoulders onto the floor. “You can’t scuff up the floor Mr. Stark, it’s a resin composite.” He met the man’s amused eyes. “What?”

“Wasn’t the point.” He smirked back at the teen before waving a hand towards Steve and furthermore Bucky as he had to ‘introduce’ Peter. “This is Peter Parker, he’s my intern. Peter that’s Captain sunshine and his darker cloudier self.”

Peter frowned at Mr. Stark before looking over to the two men. “Um...Hi. Like wow, Mr. Stark said you were coming and everything but-”

“And that’s our tour, if you’ll need us we’ll be on a floor you’re not allowed on.” Tony twisted the teen sharply about and called out. “Say goodbye to the nice renegades Peter.”

“Um...Bye?” The teen stumbled as Mr. Stark pushed him forward, towards the elevator down the hallway. “Nice to meet you!” Followed shortly by. "Mr. Stark my bag."

"Leave it, the worse that will happen is Steve will unpack it for you."

"What?!"

Steve smirked glancing towards Bucky. “He lectured him about the floor?” The skeptical tone Bucky used had Steve nodding his head.

“Guess so.”

Bucky sighed, looking back to the TV. “Weird.”

Steve smiled as he returned to watching the television with his friend, at least Tony had kept his comments to the tame side when he introduced Peter.

*******

“That is so cool!” Peter jumped as he watched Mr. Stark apply a small piece of copper to a circular power supply he’d developed specifically for his suit. “It’s like a mini-arc reactor.”

Tony snorted. “No. Nice try kid, but no.” Tony shook his head as he pulled the copper wire away and watched the power flicker out of existence. “You don’t get to have a giant power source until I know you won’t crash into something and break the damn thing like you did the first ten drones I gave you.”

Peter winced at the reminder. “It was a bad winter.”

Tony snorted. “No, that’s how we figured out that Spidey doesn’t do winter, Spidey has a winter vacation like the rest of his class.”

“Yeah...” Peter had to admit that winter hadn’t gone over that great, how was he supposed to know that the whole zombie thing he had going on was related to his powers? Apparently, he was supposed to or at least that’s what Mr. Stark had said when he got to see him in the act for the first time.

“Well now that we know that works...We just have to re-line the power circuits in the entire suit.” Tony grabbed a set of needle-nose pliers, the kind that was really only useful for the thinnest of wires. “Let’s get started.”

Peter looked at the suit laid out before them, and the copious spools of copper that they had to hand insert into the core of the suit. “Um...Sure I can’t have a reactor?”

Tony smirked as he thrust the pliers into the kid's hands. “Get started kid, we’ve got all night.”

“At least it’ll be cool when it’s done,” Peter replied soberly as he began to feed the first tiny wire into the suit.

“Yep...Just twenty-five thousand strands left to thread.”

Peter paused, looked to Mr. Stark in horror and then whined. “Mr. Stark.”

Tony laughed, patting the kid's shoulder. “Don’t worry, I’ll only make you do half and I’ll buy you pizza.”

“Fine.” Peter pouted a moment before uttering with a sly grin. “With Pineapple.”

“HEATHEN!”

*********

Steve looked up in surprise when it registered that he and Bucky weren’t alone, that was mostly because Bucky had shifted to see who it was that had joined them. Steve smirked when he saw it was Tony’s intern who had come in at some point and was now slouched over the island. He glanced at Bucky, the man shrugged, alright then. Twisting back around Steve questioned the silent teen. “Problem?”

Peter jumped, twisted about flailing before sliding down the island to the floor.

“Oh!” Steve made to get up from the couch. “You okay kid didn’t mean to startle you.”

“I’m good.” Peter threw up a thumbs up that could be seen over the rim of the other couch. “Stuck the landing.”

Steve chuckled at the teen's remark, sending a look towards Bucky when the man retorted. “No, you didn’t.” Both men watched as the kid's hand grabbed the top of the opposing couch before he appeared to climb to his feet. 

Peter blushed. “Sorry...Guess I was caught up in my head and didn’t realize that I wasn’t alone.”

“That’s fine, you’re here all the time right?”

Peter shrugged. “Most weekends and a few days after school.”

“That’s a lot of time around Tony.”

“Mr. Stark’s great.” Peter sent a frown towards the other man when he snorted.

“Don’t mind him.” Steve smiled back at the concerned kid after he saw how Bucky reacted to his statement. “He and Tony don’t really see eye to eye.”

Peter gave a nod, yeah he’d heard a lot from Mr. Starks side of things, not what had really happened because the man refused to talk about that stuff but enough to know that they didn’t really get along. “Mrs. Potts says that about Mr. Stark all the time.”

Steve frowned. “About what?”

“That she can’t see eye to eye with him because she rolls them too much.”

Bucky grinned at that as Steve chuckled. “She said that huh?”

Peter nodded his head. “Yeah, Mr. Stark kicks her out of the lab cause she’s a bad influence on me.”

Steve laughed. “I think that’s the wrong way around kid.”

“Probably...But Mr. Stark has lasers so...”

“Fair enough. What are you two working on?”

“Um.” Peter paused, that was definitely one of the questions he wasn’t allowed to answer.

“Top secret huh?” Steve smiled at how nervous the teen appeared now. “It’s alright I know Tony likes his space when it comes to his lab projects.”

Peter nodded his head, sighing under his breath in relief that he didn’t have to try and answer the man.

“Peter, the delivery man is here.” Friday suddenly chimed.

“Oh.” Peter made to run down the hall only to pause, twist about and ask. “You want pizza?”

Steve glanced at Bucky, the man shrugged not seeing a problem with that. “Sure.” 

“Wanna come to carry some?” Peter smiled innocently.

Bucky snorted. “You can’t manage a pizza?”

“Buck.” Steve chastised his friend as they got up, only to pause when Peter laughed. 

“We get more than one pizza.” Peter waved them forward, racing down the hallway knowing that the men would catch up. Opening the door, Peter smiled at the delivery guy, Hank.

“Hey Peter, hard at work again?” Hank was standing in the doorway, two bags at his feet and another held in the crux of his elbow. All of the bags were full to bursting.

“Yeah.” Peter twisted about when he heard a whistle, it had come from Bucky. “What?”

“That’s a lot of pizza.”

“Told you so.” Peter impishly replied before turning back around to pay Hank. Digging out the cash from his hoodie that Mr. Stark had given him. “Here, Mr. Stark said to keep the change.”

Hank shook his head. “Of course he did, you need help?”

“No, we can get it.” Steve stepped forward to take the pizzas from the bags the man was holding only to have the man shake his head. 

“The bags are yours.”

“Huh?”

Peter laughed at Captain America’s confusion. “We give them back later, we order too much to carry.”

Steve smiled. “We can get it, Peter.” He waved to himself and Bucky. The teen glanced uncertainly between them but sighed. “Alright.”

Steve and Bucky managed to get the pizzas out of the three bags the man had brought, the latter muttering. “Why so many, Stark doesn’t eat this much.”

Peter chuckled as he gave a wave to Hank. “We don’t really sleep, so this is more dinner, breakfast, lunch, and dinner again.”

Steve frowned at the energetic kid. “He doesn’t let you sleep?”

“It's not like I’m tired...We get caught up in the projects all the time...Part of the reason Mrs. Potts can't be here when I’m here. She makes us stop.”

Steve sighed, that was probably for good reason. The teen shouldn’t have been allowed to stay up all night in a lab just because Tony didn’t know when to stop, Unable to do anything at the moment he questioned. “Where to?”

“Kitchen, he’ll come up when he’s done with wiring the internal sound dampeners.” Peter hummed alongside the two men, being so daring as to snatch one of the boxes off of Bucky’s stack. The man flinched a bit but Peter didn’t pay it any mind as he opened it while walking and took a slice to start eating.

“Hungry huh?” Steve chuckled at the kid's hasty actions.

Peter nodded his head as he chewed. “I came straight from school.” He took another bite of pizza as they entered the kitchen where the two super soldiers divested themselves of pizzas. Steve actually bothered to go and get plates where Bucky followed Peter's actions and simply opened a box to start eating. Steve shook his head at the man in disbelief before offering Peter a plate. The teen took it with a thankful nod, adding three more slices to his plate.

“Wow, you must be hungry.”

Peter smiled. “I do a lot of running.”

“Running huh?”

“Well and gymnastics.” Peter shrugged, it was technically the truth given what he did on a day to day basis.

“Gymnastics?” Bucky frowned. “What like girls?”

Peter snorted at the confused man's question, shaking his head. “Think more like parkour.” It was similar if you got down to it, provided you leave out the web-slinging parts.

Steve smiled at first only to pause when he saw the conflicted look on Bucky’s face. The man didn’t understand and that wasn’t overly surprising since he’d been so out of the loop when it came to the world in general. Smiling back at Peter, he informed the teen. “He doesn’t know what that is Peter.”

“Oh.” The boy looked from the frowning man who now seemed somewhat embarrassed and then back to Mr. Rogers. Nodding he set his piece of pizza down and wiped his hands on his pants. “It’s like this.” He twisted about and ran towards the couch, vaulting over it, hand standing on the coffee table before free flipping onto the arm of the other couch while doing a front flip in the air. Once on the arm of the couch, Peter pushed himself back to kick off of the wall where he backflipped onto the ground before standing.

Steve’s eyes widened. “Okay then.” He had not been anticipating the kid being that good when he’d mentioned the hobby.

Bucky smirked, he was impressed, not having expected anything like that from the lanky teen who appeared as he weighed just above what Steve had back before the serum. “You do that for fun?”

Peter nodded his head, leaving out the obvious part of it playing a role in him being Spider-man.

“Seriously kid, the wall? Again?”

Peter tensed, looking over to Mr. Stark who was standing in the entranceway to the room shaking his head. “You got a footprint on the wall again.” He gestured towards it. “And what did I tell you about using the coffee table as anything but a surface for drinks? For that matter why do I have to tell you not to do these things?”

Peter smiled. “Not to?... And cause I keep doing them.”

“You don’t sound so sure about that,” Tony remarked with a dry tone of voice as he got a piece of pizza for himself. “What’s with the gymnastics? Don’t get enough of that at your job?”

Peter laughed as he ran back over to the group. “I was just showing them cause... Um, what do you go by-I mean what should I call you?”

Bucky frowned at the nervous teen. “Bucky.”

“Right. Mr. Bucky didn’t know what parkour was so I was showing him.”

Tony snorted, coughing a bit at Peter’s honest to god mistake. The kid and his manners. “His names Bucky kid, not Mr. Bucky. He’s not an adult that you have to go around sucking up to.”

Peter blinked a few times, looked over to the now amused men and blushed. “Force of habit.”

Chuckling Steve waved the kids mistake off. “Its fine Peter.”

Tony reached over to open another pizza box only to hiss at it. “Ugh get this vile stuff away from me.” He shoved it towards Peter who laughed, readily taking the box of pineapple pizza away from the man.

“What gives?” Steve questioned with a grin.

“Mr. Stark doesn’t like pineapple on pizza, says I’m a heathen.” Peter grinned right on back at the man.

“It’s gross,” Tony complained, watching on in mild horror as Bucky took a piece bit into it and hummed.

“Tastes fine to me.”

Tony pointed a sharp finger at the man while talking to Peter. “Do not use him as a role model for what’s okay in this world.” Bucky tensed, but before Steve could retaliate against Tony’s mean words Tony pointed at Peter while glaring at Bucky. “Do not trust this kid's tastebuds, I watched him put barbecue sauce on a fish taco. There is enough wrong with you the both of you that we don’t need you swapping stories.”

“It was good,” Peter replied, when everyone looked at him he stated. “The taco, it was good.”

“No, it made me want to hurl.” Tony yacked back at the teen.

Bucky glanced back at Steve, confused on how to go about responding to all of that. Steve just shrugged back at him with that stupid grin of his. Sighing he stole another slice of pineapple and smirked when Stark made a horrified look.

Steve watched on in surprise as Peter took another set of slices for himself, his eighth if he was right. “You weren’t kidding.”

“Hmm?” Peter hummed around his pizza.

“Kid can pack it away.” Steve smiled at Tony.

Tony snorted. “No kidding, he’s a bottomless pit of which there is no return. His aunt assures me that he’s always been this way, I say it’s some for a mutation in a teenager cause they’re the only ones who can put food away like that, to begin with, and he takes it up a notch.”

Peter huffed, catching onto the not so subtle jab at his abilities all while not revealing anything to the men. “Aunt May doesn’t call me a mutant when I eat.”

“Aunt May doesn’t have to watch you eat pineapple on a pizza.” Tony threw back.

“She eats it too.”

“Ugh, now I know where you got it from.” Tony shook his head, snatching up a full box of pizza before whirling around to head back to the lab. “Finish your dinner kid, and for the love of god hydrate. I do not want to explain to your aunt again why you passed out from lack of fluids.”

Peter hummed around his pizza, watching the man retreat down to the lab.

“You passed out?”

Peter twisted to see the concern in Captain America’s gaze, swallowing Peter shrugged when that didn’t appear to assuage the man’s fears Peter just went with the truth scientifically speaking. “ I can get hypoglycemic if I don’t eat enough...So yeah, kinda passed out on him a time or two, he’s exaggerating about liquids though, I’m fine.” Peter grinned in an impish way. “But it really freaks him out so now he’s got candy bars all over the place.”

Steve chuckled. “I wondered where Clint got those.”

“There’s always some up there.” Peter pointed towards the highest cabinet in the kitchen, well beyond anyone's reach.

“How do you get those?” Bucky retorted. “You’re short.”

“Buck.” Steve chastised his friend only to sigh when Peter just laughed and replied.

“I climb the counter.” Peter grabbed the edge of the island and hoisted himself up with ease into a handstand. “Just like Parkour.”

Bucky grinned at the kid.

“Peter, get down off the table.” Steve was smiling even as he made the kid get down.

“Oh. Sorry.” Peter flipped himself back down to the floor with a grin towards Captain America. “Oh...I need to do that.” Once his feet were on the floor again it jarred his memory. Peter ran over to the sink, ducking down beneath it to grab something before running around the men to go and literally clean his footprint off of the wall. 

Bucky laughed, a startling sound that had Steve smiling. Glancing back to Peter and then back to Bucky, Steve smiled. He hadn’t heard Bucky laugh like that in a long time, a very long time.

Peter ran back discarding the supplies before shrugging. “He lets me into the training room to climb stuff just so I don’t do it in the lab.”

“I wouldn’t think that would be safe.” Steve frowned. “There’s got to be all sorts of stuff down there.”

“Oh, there is.” Peter agreed. “But that just makes it fun...Well, until Mr. Stark catches me then it’s not so much fun cause he makes me do stuff like fish out all the screws that he knows Dum-E has dropped into the sink. I swear he added more just because he could.”

Steve chuckled at the boys retort to his concern, pausing when Friday suddenly spoke.

“Peter, the boss would like to remind you that your aunt requires your nightly call of survival.”

“Ah, right.”

“What?” Steve laughed.

Peter phished out his phone as he told the two men. “Its a deal my aunt and Mr. Stark made. I can come and hang out, stay the night but I have to prove he hasn’t done something horrible to me like cooking me with lasers or something.” Peter waved his hand in the air as he held the phone to his hear.

“Lasers?” Bucky sent a look towards Steve.

“He does have a lot of those,” Steve remarked.

“Hi Aunt May, yes I’m still alive. No...Yes, we had pizza...Yes with pineapple.” Peter was grinning as he talked to his aunt. “No...No I didn’t, um...Cause you’re my legal guardian and I’d rather get the bad look from you than Mr. stark...You’re making it right now aren’t you?” Peter scrunched up his face as his aunt replied while the men looked on amused. “Yeah...But I’m here and that’s like over an hour away, you’ll stop being angry by the time you get here. So why not keep the anger there for when I get back, like save it in a piggy bank or something.”

Steve chuckled as Bucky gave a snort at the teen's retorts to his aunt's irritation to whatever he’d done.

“No...Mr. Stark said he was buying me a new backpack since he technically destroyed the last one. No...I promised him I wouldn’t tell you how that happened. No, it didn’t involve lasers.” Peter rolled his eyes. “No? Well I don’t know if he has that aunt May, I mean he could, but I really don’t think he’d use it on a backpack if he had some. Cause he has lasers?”

Bucky smirked as he took another piece of pizza, this kid was amusing.

“Alright...Yep, love you too...Yeah, I’ll let Mr. Stark know. Yeah, I will. Bye.” Peter hung up the phone with a sigh, smiling at the two men. “Well, she knows I’m alive.”

They chuckled. “I’m sure she’s glad to hear it.”

“You wouldn’t know that by the way she talks.” Peter looked down at the phone.

“She obviously cares for you, especially if she managed to make Tony enforce a phone call.”

Peter shook his head. “He’s scared of her.” Both men gave looks of disbelief to the teen, Peter shrugged as he put away his phone. “He is. Mrs. Potts laughs at him about it, I think it’s cause he thinks my aunt’s Italian and that somehow makes her vicious?”

Steve chuckled, shaking his head at the kid's ramblings. “So you live with your aunt?”

Peter smiled. “Yeah.” Nodding he freely told them a bit about himself. “My parents died when I was like four...Plane crash, and my aunt May and uncle Ben took me in.” The two men had frowns on their faces as they listened to Peter talk about what brought him to be in his aunt's care. 

“So you live with them, that’s good.” Steve's tone was a tad more reserved after hearing what had befallen the boy's parents. Bucky was silent beside him, but Steve couldn’t take the time to reassure the man that everything was fine as Peter was talking once more.

“Well, I live with aunt May.” Peter chimed in to correct the man. “My uncle Ben died a few years ago...We were in an argument and things just went bad.” Peter paused a moment, he wasn’t sure why he was saying this. But it wasn’t as if it was some big secret either, it wouldn’t link him to being Spider-man so why not explain himself. “He got shot because they wanted his car. He was only out because I’d run away from home that night...So it’s just me and aunt May now...Well, and Mr. Stark cause aunt May says he should start paying child support at this point for how often he steals me from her.”

Steve chuckled at that though it was a bit strained after having heard the boys story, Bucky hadn’t moved or made a sound since Peter started telling them about himself. Steve knew that was for more than one reason, dead families weren’t a good mix around the man not that Peter could know such a thing. “I’m glad you have her and she seems like a tough woman to proposition Tony like that.”

Peter laughed, giving a nod. “I think Mrs. Potts actually planned on do it when Mr. Stark made her mad a few weeks ago. She was threatening to adopt me.”

Steve laughed. “That sounds like something Pepper would do.”

“She’s really nice.”

“She is.”

“Peter, Boss would like me to tell you that you’re break is over and that there are a lot of copper carbon fibers that are in need of your inspection.”

Peter grimaced. “Ugh, that sucks.”

“Why?” Bucky frowned back at the kid.

“Twenty-five thousand,” Peter replied easily to the man. “I have to do it by hand with little pliers.” Peter made a small gap between his fingers to show how tiny they were. “Mr. Stark was helping but he kinda drifted off to another project so that means I have to do it.”

“Wow, sounds rough.”

Peter shrugged. “It’ll be cool when it’s done though.” Peter snagged the half-empty box of pineapple pizza and carried it down the hallway with him. It wasn’t until the kid had been gone for a few minutes that Bucky chimed in. “He ate two whole pizzas.” Looking at Steve he added. “And took another half.”

Steve shook his head. “Tony was right, he’s got a bottomless stomach.”

Bucky just nodded in reply as he took one of the other boxes with him back to the couch, Steve smiled, grabbing another one before following the man.

  
  



	3. Getting to know a spider

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter manages to break a part of his suit while out fighting crime, forced back to the compound he's met with Steve and Bucky's curiosity as Tony chides him for breaking the suit again. Peter is forced to answer some questions when Tony's not around.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you all enjoy this weeks chapter XD.

It wasn’t until the middle of the next week after arriving at the compound for their continued stay that anything truly interesting happened, Steve and Bucky were hold up in the living room watching some movie that Steve felt Bucky might enjoy, that Bucky clearly wasn’t enjoying when Tony suddenly swooped in.

“Friday on the screen now!”

The screen shifted all at once, startling Steve and Bucky into seeing footage with Spider-man dealing with some kind of monster...Or a man dressed as a monster.

“What is that?” Steve sat upright, glaring at the screen as he watched the hero swing around them trying to get the upper hand.

Tony snorted. “A bad attempt at being a supervillain. Patch me through to him Friday.”

Steve and Bucky glanced over to the man seeing Stark putting in a Bluetooth device into his ear, not a second later the man was snarking. “Yes, hello...Paging Spider-man...Glad to hear that you're out on the town today and all bu- DO NOT DO THAT!” He waved his hand at the screen, the men twisted about only to wince as the man was thrown into a building. A few tense moments went by before the masked figure was seen crawling out of the half-collapsed building only to fall onto a nearby sedan. The figure shook his head a moment before he was up and heading back into the fray.

“Jesus Christ kid you’re going to give me a heart attack, stop playing with him and just web him up. No, I really don’t think you are, cause if you were you wouldn’t have looked like you’d just gotten swatted by a giant fly swatter. You’re a spider, not a fly.”

Bucky snorted at the man’s lecturing of the other hero, watching alongside Steve as Spider-man swooped down from a great height and nailed the sucker dead in the chest after having distracted him with some debris he threw his way with the heroes webbing, all of this culminated in sending him flying into his own building. “Ouch.”

Tony laughed. “Bet that’ll leave a mark. Good job,." Tony sighed when he was forced once more to coach the teen. "No don’t wait to see if he gets back up, make sure he stays down.” Tony shook his head as they watched Spider-man flip down to the ground, approaching the downed villain with a air of caution. “What do you mean he’s snoring?”

“He’s out cold.” Steve retorted in a mild chuckle.

Tony hummed to that, that made sense. “Alright, I’ll take that...No not you, I was talking to Steve. Yes, Captain America god kid get up to date on names.” Tony laughed at the teen's weak retort as he walked around to flop onto the un-occupied couch to watch as the teen went about webbing the hell out of the monster like man. When the man was completely shrouded in webs did Spider-man take a step back, nod and then twist sharply to shoot a line of webbing which saw him catapulting out of the range of the cameras which tried to follow him but failed shortly thereafter.

“Great work kid...Huh?” Tony snorted. “Not likely, just get away from the cameras before you do something stupid like taking off that mask. Yeah, I know you’re sweating deal with it.”

Steve smirked, nudging Bucky with a grin. The assassin shook his head amused as well as they listened to Tony talk to the masked hero who they hadn't gotten to talk to since the first day they arrived.

“Oh you are are you? Cute...What do you mean you broke it? How’d you do that?!" Tony frowned as he listened to the teen's reply before admitting. "Okay yeah, I did just see you get thrown into a building but I just fixed it,” Tony complained before he was forced to listen to what Peter had to say about all of that, then with the vengeful wrath he was known for, commented. “Oh for the love of...My intern is going to have your head, yeah cause he gets to fix that, yes ALL of it. Just get back here...I don’t trust you not to keel over.” Tony muttered sourly before pulling out the earpiece.

“Peter works on Spider-man’s suit?”

Sighing when he once more realized that he wasn't alone and, in fact, had an audience Tony shrugged, at least he’d managed to keep the kids cover given his present company. He needed to make sure there was a reason for Peter to be around as often as he does as no internship he’d ever been a part of had people staying over as Peter did, at least this little slip up made that easier. “Kids good at what he does.”

“Does he know Spider-man.”

Tony smirked, oh how he’d known that question would come about. “He’s not going to tell you anything about that suit or the man behind the mask.”

Bucky gave an amused noise. “Kid can barely keep his own thoughts straight, doubt he can lie.”

Tony chuckled at that, Bucky wasn’t exactly wrong about the kid but there was no way he would be seen agreeing with that man so he quickly threw out his own rebuttal. “Shows what you know Barnes, he lies to his aunt every day.”

Steve scowled. “What? Why?”

Tony waved his hand at the man dismissing his outrage. “Because she thinks this is a normal internship that has nothing to do with superhero suits or anything of the ilk.”

Steve nodded his head, he supposed that made sense. Just because the kid was in the know didn’t mean that his family necessarily was and Peter wasn’t involved in the fighting so it wasn’t as if Steve had a real reason to complain.

Bucky glanced from Steve who was still frowning towards Tony who was smirking, the man always had a cocky edge to himself not that Bucky was about to step into that mess. Far better for him to keep his head down and let Steve deal with things...Especially Stark related things. He was thankful that despite the long silence, Steve found his voice to question the man. “So he’s coming here?”

Tony nodded. “Broke a part of his suit again...I gotta find something that can hold up a bit more. When he really digs his heels in he can break things without meaning to.”

“What do you mean by that?”

Tony looked at Steve with a dead stare. “He’s strong Steve, really strong. That suit offers him some protection from the crap like him crashing into buildings but it’s pretty damn useless if he ends up breaking it all the time by letting himself get crashed into buildings.” 

“That suit doesn’t look all that impressive on the defense,” Bucky replied cooly, willing to throw his two cents in when it came to that.

“It does more than just look pretty...But yeah it’s not my armor.” Tony fired back, once more he couldn't entirely disagree with the man and that irked him. Tony quickly cast it aside, waving his hand at the man. “Besides it’s an upgrade compared to what he used to wear.”

“What did he used to wear?”

Shaking his head Tony called out. “Friday cue up the infamous van footage.”

“Van?” Bucky scowled.

“Shh, movie time.” Tony pointed to the screen just as the grainy footage showed Spider-man, lacking the high tech suit swinging down to land between a loaded bus and a van. Stopping the van with his bare hand's inches before the bus as he was pushed backward only to hop up onto the hood wave and then swing out of shot.

“He stopped it with his bare hands, Steve skidded maybe an inch or two.”

“Like how he caught my fist,” Bucky interjected after watching the footage, the man’s strength made more sense watching him catch the van like that.

Tony nodded his head, pointing towards the now replaced Vibranium arm. “Yeah, I heard all about that. He likes your arm, why I can't imagine I mean it's not like I don't have an entire garage full of robots and armored suits that are far more advanced than that little thing.” Tony griped.

Bucky snorted at the man's complaints to the man liking his arm, that seemed rather odd in his book too but to each their own. “He didn’t even flinch though, just said it was cool.”

“Yeah, that’s the kid for you.” Tony rolled his eyes, of course, Peter would find the man's arm cool while in the midst of a fight, that was just how Peter was. Tony glanced back at Steve when the man suddenly spoke up.

“Is he really?” Steve’s voice came firmer now that he was linking Tony’s words together.

“Is he-”

“A kid Tony, is he a kid?” Steve’s eyes had gone colder as he interrupted whatever attempts to avoid the subject might pop up, Bucky leaned forward in his seat, laying his arms on his thighs as he watched the two men. He knew how Steve felt about child fighters, after their time in the war...He had to agree and he'd back the man up on that not that his say would garner much favor given who they were up against once more.

Tony smiled, not feeling a lick of guilt in lying to the man since he’d known that Steve was liable to overreact this way without all the facts. "Classmate of Peter’s.”

“Damn it Ton-”

Tony pointed to the screen which was paused, the grainy footage of Spider-man catching the van for all of them to see. “He was doing that long before I found him Steve, and he wasn’t about to stop even when I told him it was dangerous. You think he’s gonna stop because Captain America says so?” Tony laughed at the mere idea, shaking his head. “Cause he didn’t care when I did. I gave him a suit Steve, figured he was better with one than without one.” Tony gave a shrug before admitting one of his biggest screw-ups. “ Then he went and did something stupid so I took it back and told him he wasn’t ready for this type of responsibility, that he should just stop now before he got someone else hurt.” Tony’s voice drifted a moment as he said that, he cleared his throat before continuing. “My plane got hijacked and that stupid kid, attached himself to a jet thousands of miles over the earth to stop it from being hijacked, without a parachute.” 

Steve and Bucky were listening in surprise to what he was saying about the teenager, how reckless he’d been all in the guise to be helpful. It wasn't easy to see how a teen might stand up to someone like Tony, the man could be imposing on the best of days but to a teenager? And then the plane? No one in their right mind would just get onto a hijacked plane without a parachute as a last means of escape if things went bad.

“The plane crashed Steve fell straight outta the sky and that kid was still on it. Crashed straight through coney island and that bastard who was trying to hijack it continued to beat on that kid after that lovely descent into the sand. The kid still won, broke how many bones I don’t know.” Tony shrugged carelessly as if it didn't matter despite knowing the actual count, he refused to bring that into the discussion simply because he didn’t want to relive it himself. “And he did it all without me or that suit. I told him to walk away and let big boys handle it and he did that anyway, with nothing to help protect himself but a frickin onesie. So don’t give me that look, I tried to get that kid to be a kid but damn if he didn’t say no. He wants to help people, so I’m helping him help people.” Tony took a deep breath now that he’d said he peace, before adding with a proud grin. “With fewer crashes into buildings thanks to my AI.”

Bucky snorted. “He crashes into things?”

“Like a sightless pigeon whose never been to New York.” Tony smiled at the assassin, earning a laugh from the man.

All eyes shifted at once when a flare of color swung by the windows.

“And that would be my favorite spider,” Tony remarked before realizing what he’d said, he glanced at Steve. “Don’t tell Natasha I said that.”

Steve smirked, getting up alongside Tony and receiving a raised brow. “What? I can’t come say hello?”

Tony snorted at the man’s obvious ploy before gesturing loosely to Bucky. “That’s about as obvious as him trying to wear a sleeveless shirt for a tan Steve.” Tony walked away, smirking to himself when he heard both men follow behind him. He was sure they were surprised that he didn’t kick them out of the elevator when he twisted about in it. But he'd kept Peter's identity a secret and now that the kid didn't have to avoid the compound while in a mask, it would be easier to just get the whole hello bullshit out of the way. Both men stood just inside, waiting for something. Tony quirked a brow. “Friday, lab three.”

Steve gave a soft smile at not being told to take a hike, for whatever reason Tony was allowing them to see the teen after telling them more about him.

“Do not touch a thing.” Tony pointed a sharp finger at one and then the other. “I mean it.”

Steve gave a nod. “We won’t.” Bucky shrugged, earning a glare from Tony.

“You touch something Barnes and I’ll let that kid string you up to the ceiling and I'll let you stay there.” Tony smiled chipperly when that earned a dark glower from the assassin before the man twisted his head away sharply. Tony smirked at that, the elevator came to a stop, the group disembarking and heading over to a wall of clear glass that was really more than glass given its abilities to hold up to what Tony put it through. Entering a passcode to the security panel, Tony waltzed into the lab all smiles upon finding his favorite spider where he expected him to be.

“Get down or I’ll give Steve a broom to make you get down.”

Peter huffed from where he was in the corner of the ceiling, doing his best to avoid the worst of the man’s fury. “But Mr-”

“Down.” Tony pointed to the ground before telling Steve. “Brooms in the closet by the way.” The super soldier smirked in return.

Sighing the teen slide down the wall as if it wasn’t a vertical surface that people couldn’t climb. “I thought they weren’t allowed in the lab?” The teen petulantly yet curiously asked as he looked at the men curiously.

“They saw the van footage,” Tony remarked as he pulled the teen over to his workbench and started fiddling with the spider symbol in the center of his suit.

“Ah, man.”

Steve smiled at the teens put out response. “He showed us because I wasn’t too happy to hear that you’re...A kid.”

Peter huffed at that. “I’m not a baby.”

“I-”

“Shh, does this sting?”

“OW!” Peter jumped when the man purposefully used the suit to zap him. “Yes, it stings!”

Tony grinned. “Good, that is what happens when you break things from being too strong.” Tony waved his soldering tool at the kid. "And it's also a good example of what's broken."

“W-How is that my fault?”

Steve shook his head as Tony began to tell the teen all the ways that he shouldn’t use the suit, Bucky leaned into him whispering just for their ears. “Think Stark knows how strong he really is?”

Peter twisted his head to the side to stare at the men while Tony continued to examine his suit. “He does.”

They froze at the same time Tony looked up from his work to ask. “What?”

“They were talking, wanted to know if you knew how strong I was.”

Tony chuckled, giving the pair a smirk. “Kids got ears, he can hear at least a mile out so there are no secrets here FYI.”

Steve’s eyes widened. “Seriously?”

“Yeah, I like the compound, it’s quiet here.”

Bucky gave a nod seeing the appeal. “Can you turn it off?”

“I wish.” The masked teen groaned before pointing out. “Subways can go die.”

The pair chuckled at the statement of revulsion against that particular mode of transportation.

“Alright...Go get into your skivvies.”

Peter nodded, leaving them to go into the small bathroom Mr. Stark had in this lab. 

“So we get to know who he is?” Steve questioned as he watched the boy leave, quite partial to finding out the kid's identity.

“Hell no.” Tony shook his head. “He’s gonna keep the mask on.”

Steve sighed, that seemed a bit much. “Tony-”

Tony held up his hand. “Uh-Uh, he’s keeping his incognito status for as long as I can manage to remind him to keep the damn mask on.”

All three men turned towards the bathroom when they heard. “I can hear you!”

Steve smirked, giving Tony a look. The genius shrugged. “Told you so.” The door came open a moment later, the teen still wearing a mask was in a simple T-shirt and sweat pants.

“Great, hand it here.” Peter handed over the suit while resolutely keeping his web-shooters on before being pointed towards the nearby couch which was shoved up against a wall. “Go.”

Peter groaned, walking over to the piece of furniture to slouch onto it. “Do I have to?” He really really didn't want to do this with an audience.

Tony cleared his throat, Peter hung his head but began to talk despite there being extra people to this particular stage in his dressing down after a patrol. “I hit a fire hydrant...Well, a bike thief did but only because I was there which meant I kinda did too.” Peter took a deep breath. “Saved some pedestrians from a runaway amazon truck...Did not save the packages though.” Tony laughed at that one. “Broke a billboard-.”

“Nice kid, public property damage is?”

Peter scowled, the eyes in his mask screwing tightly. “Not funny Mr. Stark...Karen, no I don’t want the estimate, he was joking.”

Steve chuckled at the poor teen being harrassed by Tony.

“Keep going underoos.”

“Well you saw the whole big fight thing so-” Tony cleared his throat, Peter made a pained noise but continued anyway because he knew that Mr. Stark wouldn’t let him off the hook. “I got plowed into a building.” The teen droned. “Fell onto a car, managed to apprehend the bad guy...Broke my suit. And now I’m here.” Peter gave a nod, pleased with himself that it was finally over with.

Tony looked up from the work he was doing on the kid's suit. “Um, you left something very important out.”

“I did?” Peter tilted his head curiously. “What?”

“How about the fact that you didn’t have Friday page me about the big bad guy in town?” Steve and Bucky watched the pair go back and forth, amused.

“But...I had it handled.”

Tony snorted. “Right.” He held up the suit as proof.

“That’s not my fault.” Peter sat forward, defending himself. “If anything its the stupid guy who I was fighting’s fault, I didn’t crash into the building on my own.”

Tony hummed, the kid had a point there. “Not going to argue there underoos but you still broke the cardinal rule.”

“I’m sorry.” Peter winced, groaning when Mr. Stark replied.

“Yeah say sorry to Peter now that he has to help me strip this out.” Tony tapped the center of the suit before tossing it onto a nearby workbench. “Sure he’ll love to hear all about that.” Tony smiled at Peter, knowing this was doubling down on the poor kid.

“So mean.”

Tony chuckled. “Alright kid, upstairs you need a snack”

Peter nodded, getting to his feet in a hurry only to regret it, the teen wobbled a bit, having his elbow caught by Bucky. Peter sighed giving the man a small nod of thanks. “I’m fine.”

“Snack time pronto,” Tony remarked with a scowl as he’d underestimated what the kid had been up to, he wasn’t stupid he knew Peter hadn’t told him everything that he’d done that day but that’s why he had Karen.

“Is he-”

“He’s fine, needs calories is all.” Tony grabbed the kid by the shoulders and directed him towards the elevator, making sure that Steve and Bucky were in front of them so he could lock the lab once more before they all headed up to the main floor.

“So are we feeling like chocolate of vanilla today?”

Peter snorted at the man’s teasing. “It doesn’t have flavor, Mr. Stark.”

Tony smiled when the teen assumed that he’d make him ingest the ‘strong’ version of his milkshakes. “Ah, I’m not so cruel as to make you drink that stuff. You can have regular spidey-aid.”

Peter snickered at the man’s name for the supplement drinks. “Chocolate.”

Nodding Tony waited for the elevator to stop before instructing Steve as they walked. “Escort him to the couch.”

Peter stuttered upon being relegated to being babysat by Captain America himself. “Mr. Stark I’m-”

“Go.”

Peter slouched as Captain America placed a hand on his shoulder and began to escort him to the couch. “So rude, I can walk.”

Steve chuckled as the teen got situated on the couch, taking a seat next to Bucky as Tony came around to hand the small box of liquid to the teen. They watched on as he rolled his mask up to just his nose so he could put the straw in his mouth and begin to drink from the juice box.

“What’s in it?” Bucky scowled at the box.

“A lot of calories, some fat a few doses of protein but mostly just sugar.”

“Sugar? Is that really good for him?” Steve frowned, the health-conscious part of him disagreeing with loading the kid up on sugar.

Tony rolled his eyes well aware of what the present issue was, instead of giving a bland rebuttal he explained to the man. “He burns through so many calories doing what he does, it’s just a matter of keeping his body going afterward. Once he chills for a bit he’ll be right back to normal and can just eat like the rest of us, but after a bit of swinging around he needs the sugar.”

Peter nodded his head, spitting out the straw to tell the concerned man. “Yeah, it’s kinda freaky how that all works. I burn calories just walking around like a normal person but like twice as fast? so when I’m actually out there.” He waved his hand towards the window. “I can burn three times as much if not more...Today was pretty active so.”

“Vanilla?” Tony teased. “And you’re not done.” He waved a hand at the teen to remind him to finish the drink. “Stop distracting him, he needs his snacks or he’ll get cranky.” Tony reproached the pair with a grin as he got up to get another juice box for the teen.

Peter waited until he could hear Mr. Stark was rummaging through the fridge to spit out the straw once more. “I don’t get cranky.”

Steve smirked. “Should probably finish that though.”

Peter nodded his head taking the straw back into his mouth, he hummed when Bucky questioned him.

“Does it taste good?”

Peter waved his hand in a so-so gesture before spitting out the straw once more. “There are a couple different flavors that Mr. Stark and the nice lady made for me. Strawberry is the devil, do not drink that.” Peter stuck his tongue out earning a grin from the assassin.

“What did I just say? Why are you sticking your tongue out at him?” Tony scowled glancing from the teen to the others. Bucky just smirked in return earning a glare from Tony as the man reminded them “He needs to finish that.”

“I’m fine Mr. Stark.” Peter went back to drinking from the juice box but only because the glower he was getting from Mr. Stark proved that he was going to get the lecture of a lifetime if he didn’t. He accepted the second box without any fuss.

“I don’t know if you need two or not but you were doing a lot, no harm in making sure.” Seeing the teen nod, Tony stated. “I need to go and send a message to Peter and his aunt, letting them know he needs to come over tonight.”

Peter spat out the straw instantly. “Sorry.”

Tony waved a hand at the useless apology. “If his aunt gets mad I’ll just tell her to blame Spider-man.” 

“Wha-No, Mr. Stark!” Tony laughed the whole way down the hallway, idly calling out before he left. “Do not let him off the couch until that things empty!”

Peter sulked when the man was out of the room. “So mean.”

“Better finish it, Steve’ll make you stay there,” Bucky smirked at the masked teen as he reclined himself on the couch.

Peter glanced to the mentioned man, Steve nodded. “I don’t know much about you kid but if Tony says those are important to your health then they must be...Better finish.”

Peter drank the rest of the box without any qualms, when he was done with the first he sat it aside but not before shaking it to prove it was empty. Bucky laughed at that even when Steve sent an unimpressed look to the teen.

Peter poked the straw into the second one before leaning forward and offering it to Bucky. “You wanted to know.”

Bucky blinked in surprise to the offered drink, he leaned forward to accept it tentatively before sniffing at it only to find that it did indeed smell like vanilla. Taking a cautious sip of the stuff, he pulled back with a frown on his face after swallowing the mouthful of liquid. “That’s...Thick.”

Peter laughed at Bucky’s assessment on the drink. “Yeah, it’s like a milkshake almost.”

Bucky held it out to Steve, the man tried it only to nod his head before offering it back to the teen. Peter didn’t have any compunctions about sharing the drink with the two men and began to drink it.

“And you drink that everyday?”

Peter shook his head before stopping to answer them. “Only when I’m out doing stuff, like patrolling.”

Steve nodded. “Tony makes them?”

Peter shook his head, informing the man how that might have gone. “No, he made me one of his smoothies and I told him I’d rather starve and since he didn’t want to explain to anyone why Spider-man had keeled over from hunger he had a nice lady make these things.”

“A nice lady?” Bucky frowned.

“He’s referring to Cho,” Tony called back as he came back from making his call to May, the woman had been confused as to why Peter hadn’t called her but after a bit of explaining the woman had thrown in a vile threat towards him if he let Peter get harmed while with him. That done, he returned to the present task at hand.

“Ah.” Steve smiled back at Tony. “She made them for him huh?”

“After thoroughly diagnosing him as a mutated teenager.”

“Thanks,” Peter muttered around his straw.

Tony patted the top of the kid's head as he stood behind him. “All the calls have been made, Peter Parker does not like you anymore.” Peter snorted at the man’s obvious lie. “And his aunt says that he better still be able to get his homework done.”

Peter leaned his head back, Mr. Starks hand falling back with it. “But the suits important.”

“So is history,” Tony smirked down at the teen. “Finish your spidey-smoothie and go home.”

Peter sighed, he knew what that was about. Go home, talk to Aunt May then wait for Happy to come and pick him up under the guise of dealing with his own suit. All the lying was getting a bit stupid. “Fine.”

Nodding Tony sent a flippant look to Steve who was grinning, not okay with the man having a good time Tony remarked. “What? You’ve never seen a grounded teenager before? Surely some army general tried to do that to you back in the day.” When it didn’t dampen the man’s smile Tony huffed and walked away, leaving Peter to see himself out.

Steve smiled as Tony headed off into the deeper parts of the building, looking back at Spider-man he couldn’t help but state. “Tony says that you and Peter go to the same school.”

Great. Now he had to lie to Captain America, alone. With a smaller voice, he agreed. “Yeah.”

“How’d you two meet? I mean I can’t imagine that this came about...Easily.” The man waved a hand at the masked teen.

Peter swallowed anxiously, the vanilla shake felt surprisingly hard to swallow all of the sudden. “Lab accident.”

“What?” Bucky frowned.

“Um...Me.” Peter gestured towards himself. “Lab accident, radioactive spider. Field trip went wrong.”

“You’re serious?” Steve questioned with wide eyes.

“Unfortunately yeah,” Peter remarked. “For the record, I don’t like spiders anymore.”

Bucky laughed at the teen's quip. “Guess not.” Before he motioned towards the teen. “And that?”

Peter shrugged when the man insinuated that his costume was a bit against his earlier statement. “Eh, seemed fitting considering what I can do.”

“Strength.” Steve nodded.

Peter tilted his head. “That’s not all. I mean, yeah I’m strong and all, but I’m fast and flexible not to mention I can climb walls.”

Bucky frowned confused a moment before he muttered. “Thought that was the suit.”

Peter shook his head, getting up he set the juice box on the coffee table and walked over to the wall where with bare hands pulled himself up the length of it until he was literally hanging from the ceiling by just the palm of his hands. “See?”

“Wow.”

Peter let go, bouncing on his heels before making his way back to the couch. “Yeah...My senses are kinda nuts too but the mask helps.” Peter touched the mask almost reverently.

“How long ago did that happen?”

Peter hummed. “About three years or so...Took a lot of getting used to it ya know? I mean at first, I just thought I was nuts but you really can’t avoid the fact that you suddenly can stick to stuff that you shouldn’t stick to...Waking up on the ceiling kinda puts that into perspective.”

Steve chuckled at the boy's story, it definitely made sense that his world would change on the dime if he suddenly woke up on the ceiling of all places. “Yeah, bet it does.”

Peter tilted his head before twisting to stare at the quiet man, Bucky. “But hey it worked out and I’ve gotten pretty good about using it all, what with the webs and climbing. I was strong enough to stop you from punching me in the head and there’s no way I could have done that before.”

Bucky tensed, that’s right their fight at the airport. Shit, he’d almost caved some kids head in. 

Peter noticed how the man’s posture, his whole body changed. “What’s wrong?”

Steve glanced from the concerned teen to Bucky who had gone rigid. “I-Uh think it’s just a bit jarring to know you’re a kid is all...I mean I knew you were young but I didn’t think you were quite this young.” Steve smiled in a bit of a strained manner.

“You didn’t hurt me,” Peter replied easily to Bucky. “Though the crashing threw the window after that guys flying thing snagged my ankle wasn’t much fun.”

Bucky scowled at how easily the boy cast aside. “I could have killed you.”

“Buck.”

Peter huffed, startling the pair of them. “No, you couldn’t.”

“Spider-man...Bucky’s like me, we’re really strong too and his arm-” Steve motioned to the prosthetic despite it being different than the original one. “It’s got its own capabilities.”

Peter hummed, he could see how they might assume that he wasn't capable of dealing with all of that, but he had a leg up in that regard. “But I saw you coming.”

“Saw?”

Peter nodded. “I have this sixth sense, I can tell when danger’s near or whatever.” Peter snorted at his own explanation. “Here.” Peter twisted about on the couch. “Don’t tell me when, but try to punch me.”

“Sp-”

“Just do it, it’s funny.” Peter relaxed, waiting. Moments ticked by and Peter was about to give up and explain yet again that he wasn’t joking when he sensed it. Twisting sharply he grabbed the man’s arm despite it being nowhere near his head. Steve looked back at him surprised as the teen released his wrist. He hadn’t even been aiming for the kid himself. Peter twisted back. “See?”

“You sensed that?”

“Yep.” Peter looked back at Bucky. “See, you couldn’t have hit me without me at least knowing it was coming...Doesn’t mean I can’t be hit, you nearly got me with the bench thing but I nearly got you back so...” Peter shrugged.

Bucky scowled back at the teen, this...Attitude towards their fight, the danger he was in that he cast off as if it was nothing. As if Bucky couldn't have added this kid to yet another heap of people who he'd killed, though this time it would have truly been on him. “You could have died there.” He grit out.

Peter blinked back at the man who seemed to be more upset now than when Peter had first started to argue against them, He gave a perplexed. “Um...Okay.”

Steve sighed when the teen didn’t see it the same way Bucky did though that was no fault of the teens. “Look, Bucky just has a lot going on...Has dealt with some stuff and hearing that he could have seriously hurt you bothers him.”

“Cause I’m a kid?” The displeasure in the teen's voice had Steve sighing.

“No, he’d feel bad about anyone but knowing you’re younger doesn’t help things.”

“But I already said I would have been fine.”

“I could have caved your skull in!” Bucky shouted at the teen, making everyone jump.

“Bucky.” Steve grabbed the man’s shoulder. “It’s-”

“I heal.”

Both men looked at Peter, they hadn't anticipated that the kid would step in yet again, but he did. “I can heal...It’s part of it, I mean...Like if I broke a bone say my arm it’d be healed by the end of the week. I heal fast, so it’s not like you would have really killed me from just hitting me in the head.”

Bucky glared. “You can’t heal if your heads caved in.” Bucky shrugged off Steve’s hand as the man tried to reign him in. “You would have died.”

Peter saw the conflict there in the man, felt bad from him feeling that way. There was nothing he could do to take back what happened in Germany, but he could explain to the man a bit better about his healing at least in the hope of making him feel better about it.“I was on a plane... A burning explody plane that crashed. I walked away.” Peter stated in a tense tone. “If that can’t kill me...I don’t think your fist can.”

Bucky blinked back at the teen, sure they’d heard the same thing from Stark but you could never be sure how much the man was fabricating things. Especially not when he wanted to make Steve drop a subject. “You were really on it?”

Peter nodded. “I nearly died so many times while stopping that guy...I mean the plane was on fire, he tried to decapitate me, and then the plane's engines fell apart and I fell into one which wasn’t good and then it started to crash back down to earth where I had to stop it from crashing into people and that hurt a lot but not as much as the landing where it kinda exploded an-”

“Jesus Christ.”

Peter stopped, looking back at the men-only to see the horror in both their gazes, he had obviously done the exact opposite of what he was trying to accomplish. Good job Parker. “Um...I was fine though, yeah it’s all good. See.” Peter jumped up from the couch as if him simply standing might make things better. 

“Tony knows about all of this?” Steve questioned in a breathless manner.

Peter slouched a bit. “There was a very mean lecture...Then he gave me my suit back...With new protocols.”

Steve frowned. “What?”

“Karen.” Peter reached up to tap his mask. “She’s my AI and she interfaces with Friday so Mr. Stark knows where I am at all times...In case something happens and I need help.” The men nodded. “But he added new things so that Karen can override stuff if I’m doing things that Mr. Stark doesn’t want me doing. For-Oh, what Karen?” Peter tilted his head as the AI told him that Mr. Stark did not approve of this conversation and that he sucked at not answering questions and that it was time for Spider-man to go home. “Oh...Uh, I gotta go.” Peter waved to the men before making his way to the window in a hurry.

“Where are you going?”

Peter twisted about, flicking his wrist to show that his web-shooters were still there. “I’m going home, being paged by family.” He shot out a line of webbing and waved once more before jumping out the window.

“He’s nuts,” Bucky muttered as he rose to come and stand by the window where the kid had just jumped from, they were two stories up and he’d just jumped out the window as easily as breathing. Granted he and Steve could do that any day, but this was a kid. He saw him swing about before heading off towards town.

“He’s a kid.” Bucky twisted to stare at Steve raising a brow at the man's apparent revelation. “Spider-man is a kid.” Bucky snorted now that it appeared to be really sinking in for the man. “Yeah, that’s how I felt...At least you didn’t try to cave the kids head in.” Bucky twisted to glare at the window, that wasn't going to be easy to get over. Steve looked up only to groan, his head falling into his hands once more earning Bucky's confused attention. “What?”

“I smashed him into an air carrier, he had to hold it over his own head and I hit him with my shield.”

Bucky snorted having no pity for his friend who was just now allowing the battle at Germany to sink in where the kid was concerned. It was one thing for Bucky to screw up, it was another for Captain America to do so. “Good move Rogers, at least he dodged mine,” Bucky smirked out the window.

“Bucky!”


	4. Homework

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter learns why he's being forced to lie to Steve and Bucky. Steve and Bucky get a clue as to just how smart Peter really is.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everybody, I hope you enjoy this week's chapter and thank you to all of those who have written comments. I love hearing from people.

“So...”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

Happy smirked. “Boss sent me a message.” Peter looked pointedly out the window. “Talked to Steve huh?” Peter refused to talk. “Heard you said quite a bit...Shame Peter Parker has to clean up-”

“IT'S NOT FAIR!” Peter shouted. “Why do I have to lie to them?”

Happy chuckled at the distraught teen. “He wants to make sure that he can trust them.”

“He trusts them with other stuff.”

Happy shook his head. “He trusts Steve kid...The other guy, not so much.”

Peter frowned, looking out the window. From what he’d seen Bucky was just a quiet recluse who stuck close to Mr. Rogers. “Why?”

“Oh...Um...” Happy wasn’t sure how to go about answering that. “Ask the boss kid.”

“Okay.” Peter frowned, he was going to do that, he didn’t care how awkward it might be. If he had to continue to lie to them then he might as well know why Mr. Stark didn’t trust Bucky with his identity.

As the car came to a stop at the roundabout at the front of the building Peter muttered. “It's not too late for us to just go out for Mexican.”

“Get out.” Peter snickered as he smiled at Happy, the man was smirking to but followed it quickly. “I mean it kid, out.”

“Fine.” Peter climbed out, grabbing his bag. “Bye Happy.”

“See ya kid, good luck.”

Peter rolled his eyes before heading for the front door, taking a deep breath as he entered the compound and well prepared for whatever lay ahead of him. Coming into the kitchen he saw that Steve and Bucky were sitting there, staring at him, almost as if they’d been waiting for him. 

“Um...Hi?”

“You know Spider-man.”

Peter blinked, okay so he wasn’t wrong about that, they had been waiting for him. “Er...Yeah?” Peter glanced behind him as Mr. Stark arrived, letting out a sigh of relief now that he wasn’t alone to face the men's questions. 

“Ignore them, they’re pouting because I refuse to identify our friendly neighborhood spider.”

“Okay...Why would they care?”

“You’re both kids, and he’s doing-” Steve took a deep breath. “It's dangerous.”

Tony snorted, leaning over to whisper into Peter's ear. “I cannot tell you the number of bad words Friday has recorded underoos, good job, it’s hard to get Steve to curse.” Patting Peter on the shoulder he smiled at the glaring men. “Sorry, you’re not on the guestlist tonight. Parker, downstairs.”

Peter shrugged to the two men, giving a wave as he headed for the elevator. He wasn’t exactly sure why Mr. Stark was pleased to hear Mr. Rogers curse but whatever. The ride down to the lab was done in silence, entering the lab he frowned. There was a note on the workbench. Coming over to it, Peter lifted it cautiously as if it were a bomb. The writing checked out to be Mr. Starks, the contents...Mean, so also Mr. Starks. Groaning Peter let himself slump over the top of the table.

“But I don’t wanna have dinner with them.”

“Well, that’s rude.” Peter jumped, twisting about to frown at Mr. Stark who was smirking. “Kid, I haven’t been able to lord something over on Steve in a long time.”

“That’s mean.”

Tony shrugged. “I’m letting him and his boy toy live for free so-”

“Boy toy?”

Tony froze, glanced back at the confused teen and coughed. “Nevermind. Point is, I’m going to enjoy this and it’s more of a safety thing than anything.”

“Happy said that you’d tell me why you won’t tell them who I am.”

“Did he?” Tony frowned. “Pretty sure I never agreed to that.”

Peter huffed. “Why don’t you trust Bucky?”

Tony stared back at the teen, taking in the posture and presence. It was clear that Peter was bothered by the lack of answers and quite possibly, dare he say it, be concerned for the other man. “It’s complicated underoos.”

“I’m a mutated teenager.”

Tony chuckled. “I know that kid, kinda the reason we’re here.”

Peter shook his head when the man misunderstood. “No, I’m a mutated teenager, if I can understand that I can understand whatever’s going on with Bucky and why you won’t tell them who I am. I hate lying to people Mr. Stark.”

Tony hummed. “See that’s where you’re wrong underoos, this is a bit different than just your average radioactive spider incident.”

“That’s not average,” Peter muttered. “Just tell me, Mr. Stark, I mean I hate having to lie to people and their both so nice and I jus-”

Tony held up his hand, his brow crinkling together the more he heard Peter’s rebuttal. “Kid, this is a bit above your pay grade, hell if I didn’t need to know about this I’d forget it. Love to in fact.”

Peter frowned. “Why? What’s it?”

Tony stared back at the curious teen, ultimately asking. “If I don’t tell you are you going to go upstairs and ask them?” Peter nodded. “Even though it’s rude and will be awkward?” Tony was playing on that working to his advantage, seeing Peter nod made him curse under his breath.

“I heard that.”

Tony glared at the snarky teen, pointing towards the couch in the lab. “Fine...But if this gives you nightmares or otherwise traumatizes you it is not on me.”

Peter rolled his eyes as he sat down on the couch. “Just tell me.”

“It was a dark and storm-”

“Mr. Stark!”

Tony laughed, waving a hand at the outraged teen. “Alright, alright don’t get your webbing in a knot. His names James but now he just goes by that stupid nickname Steve coined for him when they were young.-” Tony sat heavily on a stool and told the kid why it was that he didn’t trust the man upstairs to know his identity. Why he just had to be sure before he let Peter get into anything with the man around, Bucky had caused a lot of harm and Tony would be damned if he put Peter in risk because he did Steve a favor.

**********

Tony sat on the stool, watching Peter carefully. The teen for once hadn’t interrupted him all throughout his little history lesson and Tony had made sure to keep things on the tame side before stating that he’d kept things on the tame side for the kid. Peter had just nodded and gone silent. “Kid, I’m beginning to think I broke you and I don’t like that idea and for more than just because I’m scared of telling your aunt that.”

Peter blinked a few times, stared back up at Mr. Stark and uttered. “So...He was brainwashed?”

Tony hummed at the dumbed-down version of what had really happened to Barnes. “If I didn’t know better I’d say he had brain soup at this point for what they did.” Peter winced causing Tony to wave a hand out at him. “Look, he’s better...Shuri who’s from Wakanda where they put him back on ice while they unscrambled his brain has made it abundantly clear to me that his heads on straight...I just want to make sure. I did Steve a big favor by letting them come here, no one else was going to allow Barnes in a two-foot radius of themselves after the official documents came out.”

“What documents?”

Tony froze, crap. “Nevermind...Look, kid, I’m just trying to make sure that things are kosher.”

“But he hasn’t hurt anyone right?”

“Well...No. He glares a lot.” Tony remarked casually. “Doesn’t talk much, but that’s just his M.O. at the moment. Apparently, Sam’s going to be his therapist.”

Peter gave a slow nod. “But you’re not going to tell Mr. Rogers who I am either?”

Tony snorted. “That man can’t keep a secret to save his life...Well, he can but not when it comes to Barnes so no I’m not going to tell him who you are.”

Peter sighed. “So I have to keep lying?”

“Fraid so.”

Peter scowled back at the man given how he was smiling, Mr. Stark did not feel guilty. “Mean.”

Chuckling at the pouting teen Tony hopped off of his stool and waved a hand towards the kid's suit. “So...Shall we?”

Peter sighed, giving a nod as he got up from the couch. He had a lot going on in his head at the moment as he tried to wrap his own brain around the idea of Bucky being brainwashed all those years and then being frozen off and on only to finally get his life back after doing so many horrible things.

“Peter.” Tony sighed when the kid kept zoning off. “Are you with me kid or are we canceling tonight? I knew I shouldn’t have told you-”

“I’m fine.” Peter looked back at the man, smiling. “It’s just...That had to be horrible.”

Tony grit his teeth. “Yeah...Well, it was.” Tony admitted. “But we can’t change any of that and I don’t want you spilling the beans that I told you about him.” Tony pointed sharply at the teen.

“Wait so now I have to lie about that?!”

Tony smirked. “You wanted to know underoos.”

“Mr. Stark!”

Tony laughed, at least the kid was getting back to normal now that he was complaining about the unfairness of it all. Dinner was sure to be interesting and Tony wasn’t entirely doing it to lord it over Steve, it was just a bonus. A very big bonus.

**********

Peter was sitting slouched in his chair, poking idly at his broccoli.

“He okay?” Steve sent a furtive glance to a smirking Tony. 

“He’s fine.” Tony sent a sharp look to Peter when the boy snorted. “Alright, he’s a hormonal teenager who bemoans the fate of doing my dirty work,” Peter smirked at that. “Don’t smile at that you little brat, you’re proving my point.” Tony griped at the kid.

Steve smiled back at Peter, the boy finally sitting up in order to complain. “You have to put them back.” Referencing something that had happened in the lab.

Tony huffed. “No, I do not. You can do it, it’s simply an-”

“I’m not allowed to use an acetylene torch.” Peter quipped with a smirk. “Mrs. Potts said so.”

“Damn it.”

“Language!” Steve shouted back at Tony only to have the man glare at him. Bucky snorted in amusement to Steve’s sentiments about cursing even as Peter glanced between the two men.

“Um...What?”

“Boy scout of America here doesn’t like bad language,” Tony remarked coolly, Peter just nodded now that the man's earlier merriment of making the man curse made more sense. “And get off your high horse kid, just because you can’t use the torch doesn’t mean I can’t have you categorize all seventy-two of those micro screws for me.”

Peter frowned. “But that’s not for Spider-man’s suit, it's for yours.” Tony smiled, Peter slouched once more. “That sucks...I thought I was only here to help with Spider-man’s suit.”

“That was before you were too young to use a torch, so now you have to wait for me to finish before you can do something useful...So you get to categorize screws.”

Peter huffed at the man's explanation, giving a weak attempt of avoiding such an outcome. “I have homework.”

Tony scowled at the teen, alright that wasn’t exactly a bad excuse and he was sure the kid's aunt would appreciate him allowing Peter to keep up with the lame homework his school gave him. Still, he knew Peter was using it as a scapegoat because they were in front of Steve and Bucky who would put up a fuss if Tony told him no. Little conniving spider, two could play that game. “What’s your grade point average?” Peter smirked, Tony pointed. “Exactly, homework is not an issue for you.”

Peter snickered before remarking. “That’s not true...I uh, kinda failed the last history exam.”

“Oh for the love of.” Tony wiped a hand down his face. “Why? You’re a genius, why in the world does history get you? Why don’t you get history for that matter, it’s history, it’s not like it changes.”

Peter scowled back at the man for his quips. “I was busy...Couldn’t study.”

Tony sent him a look, Peter smiled sheepishly. “Uh-huh, study my ass- Don’t say it.” Tony pointed sharply at Steve before waving at Peter. “He knows how to curse Steve, hell I’ve heard his aunt say some interesting things.”

Peter snorted. “At you maybe.”

Bucky chuckled at that, earning a smirk from the kid.

“Watch it kid or I’ll dump all ten of those canisters in lab two down the drain.”

Peter flinched at the threat, quickly begging. “Please don’t.”

Tony nodded once the kid was appropriately chastised. “Didn’t think so.”

“What’s in them?”

Tony smiled back at Steve. “Glue.”

“Gl-” Steve sighed. “Seriously?”

“It’s web formula,” Peter interjected. “And it’s done so please don’t dump it out...It’ll just clog the sewer system and then I’ll have to make more.”

“You make the stuff?” Bucky frowned.

“Yeah.” Peter nodded. “It’s easy.”

“He’s a genius, after all, the kid was doing science experiments in his desk at school when I found him.” 

Peter smiled. “Mr. Harroford still doesn’t know about that.”

Tony laughed. “Good, I don’t think he’d appreciate the stuff your desk has been subjected to.”

Peter shrugged. “It’s not like it’s melted or anything.”

“Right just a few scorch marks.”

“Just a few.”

Steve shook his head as the pair went back and forth. “How’d you two meet?”

Peter looked back at the superhero in surprise to the question. “Science fair,” Tony interjected on the kid's behalf. “Pepper was doing a promotional thing with local schools and Mr. Parker here managed to keep my attention for more than five seconds, unlike his peers.”

Peter smiled at that. “That’s not true Mr. Stark, Emily got your attention too.”

“The girl with the glow sticks?”

“They weren’t-”

Tony waved him off. “The only reason I was staring was because it exploded and she was literally a living glowstick at that point.” Tony smiled at Steve. “Should have seen it, kid doused head to toe in glowing sludge.”

Steve frowned at the man’s amusement to the poor kid.

“What’d you make?”

All eyes went to Bucky, the normally silent figure finally speaking up. Peter smiled. “A complex protein-based structure that can emulsify itself in oxygen.”

Bucky stared back at the kid in confusion. “What?”

Peter just smiled, for once not feeling bad for making something go over someone's head. “Glue.”

Bucky smirked at the kid's smart ass response, glancing at Tony. “He impressed you with glue, thought schools carried that.”

“Haha, I’m dying of laughter Barnes, for your information Peter managed to do that inside his desk during chemistry class all the while his teacher was unaware. That’s above college level stuff, like, my level of stuff.”

Peter smiled back at the man. “It’s really not that impressive Mr. Stark, I mean you built the arc reactor-”

Tony waved a hand. “And I didn’t make soluble solids at the age of fifteen that are stronger than steel.”

“Wait, his glue was stronger than steel?” Steve looked perplexed over to Peter. “Did you do that on purpose?”

Peter laughed. “Yeah.”

“What are you gluing?” Steve laughed.

“Just stuff.” 

Tony snorted, real smooth kid. “And that is how Peter became my intern, shortly followed by him working on top-secret suits.”

Peter rolled his eyes at that one, managing to mutter to Bucky. “He doesn’t really keep it a secret when he’s on the news.”

Bucky smirked, staying silent when Tony sent them both a curious look.

“Well, this was a good dinner, I’ve mortified my intern appropriately and confused the hell out of Steve.” Tony shrugged. “Time to get back to the lab.” Tony pointed at Peter. “Homework, then bed...I’ll make you work double-time tomorrow.”

Peter huffed. “Thanks.”

Tony smiled as he got up from the table, assured that Steve would take care of it all as the man hated being bored and at the moment he didn’t have a whole lot to do. 

Peter watched Mr. Stark leave him behind, sure he had homework but that didn’t mean he’d really thought Mr. Stark would let him work on it when the suit needed repair. Staring back at Mr. Rogers, Peter smiled. “I think he did that cause my aunt threatened him.”

Steve chuckled at the kid's insight into Tony’s relationship with the boy's guardian. “Well if you’re struggling with history we could help.” He gestured to Bucky and himself. “We were kinda a part of it.”

Peter smirked. “Just a bit...I don’t think any of it’s on the war though.” Peter shrugged as he left the table to go and get his bag. “Think we wrapped up all of that last semester.” He called as he knelt down next to his bag to get his work.

“How’d you do?” Steve called as he and Bucky began to clear the table. He glanced over when there wasn’t an answer. Peter was giving him a sheepish look, sighing Steve asked. “How bad?”

“Well...I passed the class so...Not an F.”

Steve shook his head as Bucky snorted at the kid's lame attempts to pass off his poor grade. “And you do well in the other classes?”

“Well other than gym yeah...But that’s only because I hang back with Ned so Flash doesn’t bother him.” Peter sidled back at the table.

“Flash?”

Looking up Peter nodded at Bucky who was giving him a confused expression. “He’s a classmate of ours.”

“And his names Flash?”

Peter smiled at the absurdity of it all. “Yeah...He’s, different.”

Bucky snorted before muttering as he put some take out containers in the fridge. “That’s what we said about Jacques.”

Steve laughed before telling a confused Peter. “He was in the army with us.”

“Oh.” Peter smiled back at them before guessing. “He was different?”

“He wanted to tie a blasting cap to some guys nuts.”

Peter’s eyes widened. “What?”

Steve sighed, telling Bucky. “Might have left that part out Buck.” Smiling at Peter as he explained. “The war was...Difficult, people vented in different ways and Jacques just found humor in threatening people in odd means.”

Peter frowned. “Like a blasting cap to the nuts.” Bucky grinned. “Did he do that?” The man shrugged in response and that didn’t make Peter feel all that sure about how sane Mr. Rogers's army buddies had been.

Steve came to sit down at the table across from Peter, Bucky following suit as Peter pulled out his homework. “So...You failed on the war huh?”

Peter grimaced. “I get A’s in everything else...Minus gym.”

“Cause of Flash,” Bucky repeated.

Peter smiled. “Yeah, he throws me into walls.” Snorting at it, Peter missed the scowl that glanced over both men's faces as he opened his math book to the appropriate page.

“He picks on you?”

Peter hummed as he perused what he had left to do. “On everybody but he’s got a particular spot for me in his heart.” The teen snarked as he answered a problem.

“Does Tony know?”

Peter looked up from his math problem at once noticing the angry expressions on both men's faces. “Um...Sorta? I mean he knows of Flash but he doesn’t really know that he’s a jerk.” Peter shrugged. “It’s fine.”

“Kid he’s beating on you that isn’t alright.”

Peter smiled at the man’s concern. “It’s fine, really...Uh, Spider-man stole his car once so I think we’re even.”

“Wait...He stole the idiot's car for you?” Bucky chuckled.

“No.” Peter laughed now that he heard how that might have sounded. “Not for me, it was so he could go after the vulture.”

Steve and Bucky glanced at each other and then back to Peter. “Vulture?” They said at the same time.

Peter nodded his head. “Yeah, he hijacked Mr. Stark's plane.”

“Oh.” Steve nodded, yeah they’d heard all about that. “So he stole the kid's car...Why?”

“To chase after him, his suit thing was in a warehouse. FYI Spider-man can’t drive and that car was seriously damaged.”

Bucky laughed, startling Steve into smiling broadly at his friend. The latter just asked. “What happened?”

Peter shrugged. “The car got totaled and Spider-man got crushed by a building before taking down the plane.”

“I’m sorry what?” Steve frowned.

Peter froze, looked back at the man and muttered. “Um...He was fine...Afterward, cause you know he heals.”

“He was crushed?”

Peter sighed, yep him and his big mouth. “He’s fine, Mr. Stark had a lot to say about that but it was fine.”

Bucky snorted. “Hope so, kids got a death wish.”

Peter scowled back at the man. “He does not, he just wants to help.”

“He got crushed.”

Peter sighed at the simple retort, Bucky wasn’t wrong the whole ordeal with the building and the plane had been the scariest thing he’d ever done. Ever experienced. “Well, he didn’t get crushed-crushed cause he obviously got up and stopped the vulture.”

Steve sighed, shaking his head. “Still, neither of you should be doing this and...Yes, I realize you just want to help your classmate Peter but a kid your age shouldn’t be wiring superhero suits.”

Peter huffed, putting down his pencil to cross his arms over his chest. “I made glue...Non-biodegradable glue that’s fit for Nasa in my desk at school. I’m a bit ahead of the rest of my classmates.”

Bucky laughed, smacking his hand on the table. “He’s got you there.”

Steve smiled, though it wasn’t because of Peter’s snappy come back so much as how open Bucky was while they bantered with the kid. “Bucky don’t encourage him.”

Peter smiled back at the other man. “Mr. Stark said that he was lucky to get me first...I think that’s okay, he’s a lot cooler than sending rockets into space.”

Steve smiled. “Yeah, I’m sure you’re not the only one who thinks that. Get back to your homework Peter, don’t need your math scores dropping too.”

Peter rolled his eyes but did as the man asked, but not before muttering. “Mr. Stark gave me one of his college textbooks because he thought it would be interesting to see how far I could go with it.”

“And?”

Peter smiled down into his homework. “He’s not allowed in my math classroom anymore.”

“Wait, Tony went to your school?”

Peter canted his head up with a smirk. “My math teacher doesn’t like him but that’s only because Mr. Stark was yelling about him being a waste of my time and that he didn’t know what honors math was.”

Steve smiled. “Got pretty far in the book huh?”

Peter went back to his math. “I finished it. He ordered another one.”

“Yeah, how’d that go?” Bucky smirked only to stare in surprise when Peter tapped the book he was reading out of. “That’s it?”

Peter hummed as he jotted down another answer. “Mr. Stark shreds my real math homework and faxes the pages I do out of this one to my math teacher, I think they’re in some sort of war at the moment.”

Steve sighed, that sounded like something Tony would do.

“Peter, the boss would like you to know that he requires your pathetically small hands for something.”

Peter sighed, putting his pencil down to give a droll look at the two men. “He has to say it that way.”

Steve and Bucky chuckled as the teen pushed his chair back and went to go and see what Mr. Stark wanted. As soon as the kid was gone Bucky reached out and twisted the kid's math book around to take a look at it. Steve leaned over to join him.

“You understand any of that?”

“No, do you?”

“I see the number two...So part of it?”

Bucky snorted, shoving Steve away as he put the kid's book back. “Kid’s smart.”

Steve laughed, patting Bucky on the shoulder. “I think he’s a bit more than that Buck.”


	5. Pineapple

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Spider-man's hurt leaving Steve and Bucky to tend to him until Tony can arrive to help them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The stories almost over, just a few more chapters. I hope you've all been enjoying this story. I wanted to throw out that I have a discord channel where I post updates on when stories will be updated and announce new stories before they're posted. So if you're interested the information is on my profile. Enjoy the chapter!

They’d settled into a routine around the compound, Peter would come over after school on most days and if not always on the weekends. Whenever the teen wasn’t there, a chance of Spider-man being there was a possibility. Throughout, Peter kept his cool and managed to keep his identity a secret even if he didn’t agree with Mr. Stark about Bucky. He was getting to know the man and he seemed fine, but Peter wasn’t about to go against Mr. Stark's orders and so he did was he asked. And then Peter fell.

Tony grit his teeth as he quickly assured the kid. “I’m on my way back kid but you’re going to beat me there, so this is what we’re going to do. I’m gonna call Steve and tell him and his ex-psycho boyfriend to help you until I get there alright?” A pained ‘Yes’ came through the line. “So you just need to get there in one piece...Er, just get there and they’ll help you. I’m on my way underoos.” He paused only to sigh. “Try to keep the mask on, but if it goes it goes, kid. I’m not too worried about that when it comes to whatever has you bleeding right?”

“O-Okay.”

“I’ll see you soon kid, go straight there.” Tony hated having to disconnect the call with the kid but he needed to give Steve a heads up. It rang for only a moment before Friday linked him up to the systems in the compound. “Steve you got work to do. Chop chop.”

Steve looked up from the sandwich he was making, Bucky was leaning over the countertop to watch him but they both glanced over to the T.V. when Tony appeared.

“Work? I th-”

“Spider-man is inbound and he’s hurt I need you to do your magic mojo of not freaking the hell out on him. He heals but he’s a little...Freaked out, there’s blood just-Look just distract him I’m on my way back but he’s gonna beat me by a mile. So just keep the kid calm and lie to his face if he asks you anything about how bad it looks.”

“Jesus. Tony, what happened?”

“Uh...If I had all the details I’d share them with you but the kid managed to get out the word pipe, blood, and ow. So fit those three together. He’s gonna swing into the medbay, I’m unlocking it now so just take the elevator to floor three and wait for him, I’ll be there as fast as I can.” Tony disappeared from the screen and that sent the men racing.

“Alright.” Steve and Bucky ran towards the elevator, the latter muttering.

“What the fuck did the kid get into?”

Steve shook his head. “I don’t know...Damn it, he shouldn’t be involved in all of this.”

Bucky snorted at the age-old argument that had been going on since they first learned of the kid's age. “Says the guy who pieced together some shoddy crew of wannabe soldiers in the middle of a war.”

Steve sent a glower towards his friend. “We were all over eighteen Buck...The war was different, there’s no real reason he should be doing this.”

Bucky shrugged. “Why do it when you came off the ice?” Steve opened his mouth to reply only to pause, frown and then sigh. Bucky nodded. “Yep.”

“Shut up.”

Bucky smirked, pleased with himself for managing to catch Steve unaware. The elevator came to a stop, opening and allowing the duo to race through the hallway towards the medical bay. The double doors came open easily but they weren’t prepared to find that they’d arrived after the teen. Spider-man was grasping the wall with what appeared to be strength alone, and his uncanny ability to stick to things from a single hand as his other arm was wrapped tightly around his stomach which was bleeding heavily from behind his gloved fingers.

“Shit.” Steve ran forward appraising the situation. “Alright, Alright kid let me help.” Steve grasped the kid's arm from the wall putting it over his shoulder and slowly making their way into one of the bays as Bucky wrenched the curtain aside. The teen hissed as he was half-dragged towards the room.

“What happened?”

Peter shook his head, giving a jerky breath that turned into a whine as he was lowered onto the table. His hand refused to leave the wound, the one that had been wrapped around Mr. Roger's shoulders came to join it.

“Kid we gotta see.” Bucky pulled on the boy's hand only to have the kid shake his head.

“It hurts.”

“Yeah, we got that.” Bucky retorted. “Now move.”

“Bucky.” Steve reproached his friend, the kid was obviously scared. “Spider-man look we need to see how bad it is, Tony’s on his way but we know quite a lot about tending to injuries so let us help.”

Peter gave a shaky nod though he didn’t release his wound until the men moved his hands on their own. Peter gave a small pained hiccup before explaining. “I-I fell.”

“Shit kid.” Bucky grit his teeth at the wound that looked like the damn kid had run himself through with something.

“It’s alright.” Steve smiled down at the teen, the dark mass of flesh and muscle that they could see through the hole in the suit didn’t look good. It wasn’t clean through but it was damn deep. “Alright we’re gonna try and stop the bleeding, so you need to keep your hands down. Buck over there.” Steve pointed towards the racks of supplies, the man didn’t waste any time before snatching up a multitude of towels, bandages and whatever else he could grab in one go.

He piled it on the kid's legs before telling him. “Hold still kid.”

Peter gave a jerky nod. “Mr-Mr. Starks go-Gonna be mad.”

“No. No, he’s not mad.” Steve assured the upset teen.

Peter shook his head. “I-I broke the suit again.”

Steve sighed, that was a horrible reason to be upset. “Tony’s blown his suits up thousands of times kid, he won’t be mad. He once did it to celebrate new years with Pepper.”

Peter gave a small chuckle only to groan, his hands flying back to the wound only to be held back by the men around him.

“We gotta tear this suit a bit more,” Steve told the kid since he knew it was something that was bothering him. “We need to see the wound-."

Peter reached up after yanking his hand free from Bucky, pushing the spider symbol on his suit which decompressioned it.

“Oh,” Steve smirked as the teen reached up to his neck and pulled on the fabric with uncoordinated fingers to show that it peeled off. “That helps.” Steve gently pulled the suit down the kid's torso, Bucky helping him to free the kid's arms before they came to the site of the wound. The teen whimpered as the suit pulled on the wound.

“Easy kid.” Bucky grabbed the teen's hand. “Squeeze, you can’t hurt me.”

Peter glanced down to find his hand in the metal one of Bucky. “I-I can break it.”

Bucky snorted. “Like to see you try.” He nodded when the boy did manage to squeeze though it was clearly not in an attempt to damage his arm. His attention went back to what Steve was doing when the kid whined again shifting on the bed as if to get away from the pain. Steve had his hand on the boy's sternum to hold him down as he gently pulled the last of the suit away from the wound, leaving it hanging around the teen's hips.

It was deep, not something they didn’t already know but it looked so much worse now that they could clearly see it. Blood was flowing steadily from the wound, trailing down the boys heaving skin, the mass of meat on the inside of the wound looked stirred up.

“Kid what did you yank out of yourself?” Bucky glared down at the wound because it was clear the boy had been stupid enough to remove the object by himself.

“Pipe.”

“So Stark wasn’t wrong.” The assassin muttered.

Steve didn’t waste any more time grabbing a towel and placing it over the wound. “Okay, this is going to hurt but we need to slow the bleeding.” The kid was losing too much blood as it was.

Peter nodded his head, giving a shakier one to Bucky when the man reminded him to just squeeze. He screamed, squeezing went out the damn window. He curled only to have steel-like arms force him back down away from the wound that he was vainly trying to protect as Steve apologized over and again as he held the towel down.

“I’m sorry.” Steve grimaced as the kid cried out, he and Bucky were using their only free hands to hold the kid down as their other ones were occupied elsewhere. “Just breathe okay? Just breathe, focus on my voice and not the pain.”

“Listen to Steve kid, just breathe.”

Peter was curled into them in some futile attempt to coil away from the pain that Steve was forcing him to endure in order to slow the blood loss. Peter whined, burying his head against Bucky’s shoulder. The assassin sent a frantic look to Steve who shook his head. “It’s alright.” He promised the teen. “Just keep breathing.” He held Bucky’s gaze silently telling the man to just endure the closeness of the teen for as long as he could since that was obviously the issue at hand.

No matter what Steve might be thinking at that moment it wasn’t that he was annoyed or whatever at having the kid lean against him, it was just that he was literally holding a bleeding kid again. He knew the masked teen needed some kind of anchor and Bucky was more than happy to help in this situation but there was a lot of blood and a lot of crying and that just echoed a lot of bad memories.

Peter gave a suctioned hiccupy breath the pain in his abdomen was fierce, worse now that Mr. Rogers was holding the towel into the wound. Whenever he tried to shift out of their hold it got him nowhere so Peter had allowed himself to collapse against one of them though he wasn’t consciously aware of who it was. Peter’s eyes were screwed tightly shut as he focused on breathing, there was a thumping sound it took a moment for him to realize it was a heartbeat. Not his own, but the person who he was leaning against. Peter allowed himself to put all his energy into focusing on that sound, that’s what he and Mr. Stark had practiced when he got overwhelmed. One thing, just focus on one thing. So Peter focused and focused hard.

“Kid?” Bucky looked down hyper-aware when the kid seemed to fall slack in his arms. “Kid?”

Steve grit his teeth. “Shit.” He dare not lift the towel off the wound, he knew that wouldn’t change which meant he needed to keep pressure. Bucky had an armful of dead weighted teen who had no doubt passed out from either pain or blood loss or some combination of the two. “Let’s get him laid out.” Its the only thing Steve could think of to do.

Bucky gave a nod slowly leaning forward to try and settle the teen-only to pause abruptly when the kid's hand that was against his chest coiled in his shirt. “Kid?” He frowned, looking down, the eyelids of the mask were closed so they were mirroring the teens. Looking over to Steve, Bucky told him. “He’s holding onto me.”

“Alright...Spider-man can you hear me?” He was all of ten seconds away from ripping the stupid mask off of the kid's face as they should have done the second they started caring for him when the choice was taken from him.

“Alright, move aside.”

Steve twisted his head about speaking the man’s name in some reverence. “Tony.”

Tony smiled, grimacing at the sight of the kid. “Right.” Heading behind Steve, Tony rummaged through a few things all the while calling out. “You with me kid?”

“He’s holding onto Bucky but he hasn’t said anything in a while.”

Tony snorted. “The kid can stick to things I don’t think him sticking to Bucky should surprise you at this point.”

Bucky glared at the back of the man's head. “He curled his fingers into my shirt.”

“Oh.” Tony paused frowned at the cabinet in front of him and shrugged before turning about. “Alright, let's just test that.”

“Tony, not now!” Steve shouted knowing the man's penchant for testing things, now was not the time.

“Ah-Ah.” Tony waved Steve away as he stared at Bucky directly. “Hold your breath.”

“What?” The man glared.

“Hold. Your. Breath.”

“Why woul-” 

Tony pointed at Steve before raising a brow at Bucky, he smiled when he watched the man take a deep breath and hold it all while scowling at him. The genius waited counting in his head only to smirk when Peter shifted all of the sudden. “And he’s with us.” Looking back at Bucky he muttered. “You can breath again, thanks.” Tony reached forward tapping the teen's cheek. “Come on underoos he does not get to be your personal heart monitor at the moment.”

“What?”

“Not now Steve,” Tony told the man in a biting tone. “How many pints have you lost?”

“M-Mr. Stark?” The words were slurred, groggy as the kid tried to orientate himself once more despite the pain he was in.

“Yeah, it's me kid, how low is your tank?”

“Tony, come on the kid-”

“Alright, we’re going with a five quarts low situation then.” Tony tore the packaging off of a syringe that he had taken from the cabinet and unscrewed the top of a vial.

“What’s that?” Bucky tensed at the sight of drugs even if he knew it was probably good for the kid. 

“Pain relief,” Steve assured his friend.

Tony spat out the cap of the syringe in order to answer as he prepped the kid's vein. “Ha, pain relief. No.” He shook his head as he made a small noise of approval for having found a vein to use before nodding. “There we go.” He threw the syringe back at the counter now that it was done with, tossing the vial as well. “Count back from a million kid.”

Peter canted his head up at him a bit, the eyelids of his mask only at half-mast. “W-T-That’s too high.”

Tony smiled at the simple complaint. “Try counting down from ten then.”

Peter nodded laxly from where he was still leaned against Bucky. “T-Ten...N-Nine-ne. E-E-eit.” Peter’s head fell against the man’s chest, heavier than before as a nonsensical word came before nothing. 

Tony sighed once the kid was down for the count. “Lay him out.”

“Sedative, why do that he’s losing blood, Tony.”

Tony shook his head as he helped Bucky to right the kid on the table. “Yeah, no...Things are a bit different for him Steve.” Tony grimaced as he grabbed the towel over the wound and pulled it off, it stuck from all the blood. “Ew.” He threw it behind him and hummed at the wound which was still actively bleeding.

“Tony!” Steve shouted at the same time that Bucky made to put another towel over the wound to put pressure on it, Tony held out his hand to stop the man.

“Don’t bother.”

“What?” Bucky glared at the man.

Tony pointed at the wound. “It’s stopping.”

Both men looked at the wound, carefully examining it only to find that although it was still trickling blood it was just that, trickling.

“Wha-”

“Kid heals Steve.” Tony smiled back at him. “Body was focused on maintaining the adrenaline to get him here, after that bleeding. Once it got the adrenaline under control, his healing focused on the real problem.” He pointed at the wound which even as they watched had stopped bleeding. “Time to dress it up and wait.” Tony twisted about and went to gather the stuff he’d need.

“Is-That’s it?” Steve glanced from the horrible wound on the teen to Tony.

Tony turned back around, some gauze and tape in hand. “Um...Yes, were you expecting more?”

“Tony, stitches or-”

Tony snorted. “He heals Steve, the stitches would be more painful for him than just letting it seal over...Trust me, we’ve tried it before.” Tony shook his head as he grabbed a washcloth from the assorted supplies that had somehow found their way onto Peter's legs. Using the nearby sink to wet it he came back to gently clean away the blood on the teen's abdomen. “He say how this happen?”

“He fell.” Bucky returned monotonously.

“From?”

“Don’t know.”

Tony nodded. “Kids good at sticking to things so he probably didn’t fall, probably was shoved.” Shrugging he muttered. “Friday download footage from Karen, I wanna see what the kid saw.”

“Downloading now.”

Tony gently applied a fresh sheet of gauze before securing an upper layer and taping that down. Standing back Tony glanced from Steve who was glaring at him to Bucky who was frowning down at the kid. “Well...Good job team.”

“Why sedate him?” Bucky scowled, he didn’t trust things like that and the kid was healing so-

Tony shook his head. “Kid can’t get pain relief, his system burns it up the moment it touches him. Sedation, however, well that we play with.” Tony waved his hand at the out cold teen. “That was enough to kill a dinosaur by the way...Or at least I’m assuming it would, lord knows no man should take that much. Point is, he’ll be out for an hour or so and then be right back to his chatty self.”

Steve frowned. “It doesn’t work on him...Like at all?”

“We’ve tried.” Tony sighed. “Cho’s working on it but his mutation is really hard to nail down, it doesn’t like being tampered with. Pain relief is just not on our radar when he gets thrown a curveball like today we just put him under so he’s unaware of it all. Saves the kid some pain, that should be healed in a few more hours, the kid’ll wake up but it’ll be a sight better than it is now so he should manage it alright.”

“Manage it?” Bucky growled. “His guts would have been falling out.”

Tony gave a dour look to the man. “Seriously? I think if anyone knows what that takes it would be you, and his guts were clearly not visible.”

“Tony,” Steve growled. “Not now.”

“When is the right now? Honestly, you two pussyfoot around all of that, fine that’s your business but this kid, he’s mine. I’m telling the pair of you right here and now, he’s tougher than he looks and yeah I fucking hate it that I can’t just dope him up with morphine and make stupid videos of him acting like an idiot on pain medicine but this is as good as it gets. So deal with it, or don’t.” Tony waved at the door a clear indication of where they could go.

Steve took a calmer breath, Tony was radiating how concerned he was for the teen, something unlike the normal aloof facade the man kept. It came out in brisk words made in an angry tongue but it was clear to see that the man was concerned. “Alright, Tony.” He nodded. “What else can we do?”

Tony let out a long breath he hadn’t realized he was holding. “Nothing...Wait for the kid to wake up, make him drink the modified spidey-aid to help him with the healing factor cause that’s gonna burn so many calories that he’ll be eating like every ten minutes.” Tony muttered sourly. “Seriously cannot afford to feed this kid pizza after stuff like this, so he gets milkshakes until I know he’s not ravenous. Then he can have pineapple on his pizza like the heathen he is.”

Steve smiled at Tony’s outrage about feeding the teen pizza, only to pause. Wait. “Pineapple?”

“Hmm? Yeah.” Tony snorted with a shake of his head.

Steve balled his fists, his hand shooting out to wrench Tony in his direction startling the man as he pointed with his other hand. “Pineapple? Tony really?!”

Oh. Tony sighed. “Well shit, and he was so good at keeping his cover.” He laughed ignoring the outrage on Steve’s face. “He’s gonna be so mad at me.” Shaking his head Tony pulled himself free from Steve’s clawed hand which he knew was leaving a bruise and ripped the kids mask off of him. “Sorry underoos that ones on me.”

“Damn it, Tony!”

Sighing the man sent a baleful look to Steve. “Lower your voice, he’s out but he’s not out-out.”

Steve’s jaw tensed but he didn’t say another word, nodding Tony replied in a calmer manner. “We can go toe to toe later Steve, kids gonna be drug out when he wakes up. Confused more likely and hungry...So go downstairs, lab level one and grab the green cooler for me.”

Steve’s gaze was still hot. “What’s in it?”

“His milkshakes...Not the usual ones, the ones on steroids to make up for the calories he’s about to burn.” He gestured to Peter's wound. “He’s burning three, four times the amount of calories by just existing at the moment. So if you want to help, go do that. I’m gonna wash the kid off some more cause he always makes a sour face when he sees blood.” Tony rolled his eyes at that, smirking a bit when Steve stormed out of the med bay. Glancing over to the silent figure he was surprised to find that Bucky wasn’t glaring at him but rather staring down at the kid. “He’ll be fine.” Tony found himself stating though he swore it wasn’t for the other man’s benefit for his own. Tony grabbed the rag that he’d dispatched of earlier and began to tidy the kid up, at least in some hope of lessening the amount of blood Peter might see when he woke up.

Bucky looked back up. “This has happened before...The plane.”

Tony sighed as the man brought up those instances, having mopped up the majority of the blood from the teen's abdomen Tony threw the rag into the sink. “Yeah...That was a shit storm if ever there was one. Thankfully this isn’t that bad.” Tony motioned to the kid before meeting Bucky’s critical gaze. “Kids tough as nails, well, not the normal ones, the special ones,” Tony smirked.

“He’ll get himself killed.”

Tony sobered immediately. “Don’t go there with me Barnes.” Bucky tensed, at the coldness that infiltrated the man’s voice. “All I’ve wanted to do since I got to know this kid is wrap him in bubble wrap and hell if he wouldn’t enjoy that until he realized he couldn’t go swinging around town...Kid chose this, no different than us choosing what we do. I’m lucky he’s more like you and Steve than anyone else, his healings got you two beat though.”

Bucky gave a nod, he and Steve had an increased healing factor but nothing like the kid in front of him. “Was it really a radioactive spider?”

Tony smirked, of all the questions he hadn’t anticipated that one. “Yeah, yeah it was.”

Bucky hummed before glancing back down at the teen. “Weird.”

Tony shook his head at the man’s dry comment, he took a deep breath when Steve appeared once more carrying the cooler. “Thanks.” Steve gave a sharper nod than usual, but Tony ignored that as he double-checked the cooler. “Great, the kid will love the sight of this.” He remarked sarcastically before shutting it once more. Twisting back around he nodded to the pair of them. “So...Peter’s my intern and he’s Spider-man.”

Steve glared at the carefree revelation that he’d already discovered. “His aunt knows about this?”

Tony snorted. “For the love of god Steve, do you honestly think that I’d let Peter go around fighting crime without-”

“Yes.”

“Okay...Ouch, and you technically wouldn’t be wrong.” He held up a hand before Steve could tear into him. “She didn’t know before the plane, found out after when the kid got his suit back. She knows, hates it with a fiery passion, but knows and supports him...Threatens me every Tuesday.”

Bucky snorted at that. “She Italian?”

Tony frowned at the odd question. “No, why?”

Bucky just smirked in return, the kid was interesting in his rambling. Then again he’d probably just been making up shit to keep his cover. “Why not tell us?” He met the mans gaze curiously.

Tony snorted back at him. “Really? You want to know why I don’t go around shouting from the rooftops that my intern is Spider-man?”

“He asked why you didn’t tell us,” Steve replied coldly.

“Hmm...Let me see. Oh, I know.” Tony nodded before pointing at Steve. “Cause you just got back, it wasn’t your business at the time, and despite him being chummy with the kid I don’t really trust your boyfriend.”

Steve tensed, was seconds away from blowing up in Tony’s face about his continued assaults on Bucky when the man in question spoke up.

“Smart.”

Tony glanced in surprise towards the man. “What?”

Bucky stared back at him coolly. “Smart. You don’t think I’m sane, so...It’s smart not to make a target of the kid.”

“Buck-”

Bucky shook his head when Steve got that somber expression on his face. “Can’t blame him, Steve, how many times did I keep your ass out of trouble?”

The noise Steve made earned a hearty laugh from Tony, ultimately Steve managed to utter. “You’re not going to hurt Peter.”

Bucky snorted, of course, he wasn’t. “Might tell him to avoid poles though.” He glanced down to the kid's wound or where it was beneath the gauze.

Tony chuckled. “Yeah, let's just add that to the list of things Peter’s not supposed to go near anymore...Oh wait, that’s the majority of things in this town. Kid hits billboards for christ's sake and he can literally see those coming and that’s without his stupid sixth sense thing.”

Bucky smirked. “Just cause he knows its there doesn’t mean he won’t hit it.” He mirrored the teen's earlier statement.

“No kidding.” Tony smiled down at Peter, he was out cold for the time being and Tony was glad for it. Damn pipe or whatever it had been had gone in deep, he was only thankful it hadn’t gone all the way through. There was no telling what that might have brewed.

“He lost a lot of blood.” Steve managed to state, even if it was in a tense manner.

“Yeah...His body will make more, he’s not so low that we gotta call in Cho.”

“Why do you need her?”

Tony gave a somewhat strained smile back at them. “Kid can’t just take regular blood, I mean he can, but his body just assumes it’s a virus and destroys it.” Both men stared back at him in shock. “Yeah, that’s the look I had the first time I heard it...Kids lucky that Cho’s on the payroll, she came up with a substitute, plasma, and all that jazz.” He waved his hand carelessly. “I don’t keep it here cause of how fast it goes bad, she’s got it on the ready though just in case he needs it. I thank every deity I don’t believe in that he’s only needed it once.”

“Plane?”

Tony smirked. “Oddly no.” He remarked back to Bucky. “Though that was a nightmare of broken bones and also before the whole realization of pain medicine doing jack shit for him.” Tony sighed, that hadn’t been a good night. “Kids strong.”

“He’s a kid.”

Tony looked back at Steve. “He’s Spider-man and Peter's not going to stop just because Captain America gives him the scowl of doom.” Bucky snorted at that. “Cause Iron-man looking him down through his mask didn’t shake the kid if it had he wouldn’t have boarded that plane without a parachute.”

Steve closed his eyes and let out a deep breath, he was trying to come to terms with this. That Peter was Spider-man but it was just hard to wrap his brain around. Peter shouldn’t be involved in any of this, he was a kid, and yeah sure he had abilities but that didn’t mean he had to use them.

Tony raised a brow at Steve going zen-like, sending a curious glance towards Bucky who shrugged. Nodding Tony glanced at the clock and disturbed Steve from his zenning. “Kid’ll wake up soon and he’s gonna be all limbs.” He chuckled in an attempt to lighten the mood.

“What?”

Tony smiled a warm smile. “He’ll be confused and the first thing he does when he’s confused is to latch onto something so if you don’t want to be that thing I’d suggest you back away from the table.” Then because he could, Tony pointed at Bucky. “He’ll go after you first.”

“Why?” The man scowled.

“Cause he was listening to your heartbeat when I got here.”

Bucky glanced down to his chest and then back at Stark. “So?”

“Kid has senses that dial up to eleven, pain kinda makes that go haywire so we developed this system to help him cope. Focus on one thing.” He held up a finger. “Just one, given his hearing it’s the easiest for him to use and nine times out of ten he focuses on someone's heartbeat since it’s near, steady and accessible.” Tony shrugged. “But I wasn’t here and you were, so he focused on your heartbeat. So when the kid snaps awake he’ll be autotuned to you.”

“Huh.” Bucky looked down at Peter. “Weird.”

Tony smirked, looking over at Steve who despite his best efforts to remain angry didn’t appear so anymore. “You think watching him stick to a wall was fun, watch him latch onto him.” He jerked his thumb at Bucky.

Steve smiled softly at that, he knew he and Tony would have to talk about things later, but the man was right. Now wasn't the time, the best thing he could do right now was support Tony and Peter. “That good huh?”

Tony shook his head. “He about broke some of my ribs the first time he did it to me. Gets a bit carried away when he’s first coming back to the waking world. Lucky for you, you can take it.” He smiled back at Bucky, the man shrugged not deterred by this apparent threat.

“He was worried about breaking my arm.”

“Say what now?”

Steve chuckled. “Bucky told him to squeeze his hand to help with the pain.”

“Ah...That’s cute.” Tony smirked. “Kid didn’t realize that it’s Vibranium huh?”Bucky shrugged. “Well, I’ve never tested if he could bend that...It might be fun to try.” Bucky scowled back at him, Tony waved an errant hand and with a roll of his eyes muttered. “I have some downstairs you wuss.”

“Boss the download has completed.”

Tony glanced up at the ceiling. “Hmm...So tempting.” Shaking his head he called out. “Send it to my tablet, I’ll look at it later.”

“That’s from his suit?”

Tony nodded back at Steve. “Yeah, it records everything, where he goes, what he says, who he punches.” He smiled. “It’ll be able to show me exactly what happened.”

“Sure you want to see that?”

“No, I don’t but if there’s something that I can do to prevent it in the future than it’s worth a few nightmares.” Tony candidly told the men.

Bucky gave a small nod, surprised to hear such a thing from Stark. He glanced over to Steve only to find the other man smirking though he couldn’t fathom why. ‘weird.’


	6. Hold my hand

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony has a bit of fun as Peter comes out of the sedation, Bucky and Steve are surprised to learn some new information about the teen and Peter finds out his secret identity isn't so secret anymore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OKAY, FOLKS, THIS IS IT!!! Alright, not really I was hoping the caps might get people to read this XD. There's only one chapter after this, but the story ends here. The last chapter is a bunch of cute snippets that I wrote that didn't fit in with the rest of the story. Also just wanted to remind people that I have a discord channel and if you want to stay up to date on when I'm posting things and when new stories are going to be released, check it out. The link is in my profile.

Tony had exaggerated a bit, not much, but a bit. Peter woke up slowly, confused as Tony had said but he didn’t immediately latch onto Bucky.

The kid groaned, garnering everyone's attention. “Easy underoos you got nowhere to so just sit this one out.”

Peter groaned again his head tilting to the side, towards Bucky. Tony chuckled, sending an amused look to Bucky. “Dare you to hold your breath.”

Bucky scowled. “Why?”

“Heartbeats change when you do that.” Tony grinned. 

“Tony.” Steve reproached the man.

Shaking his head Tony reached out and rustled the kid's hair. “Come on kid, need to know that I didn’t fry that brain of yours with all those happy drugs.” Peter groaned again, his head twisting towards Tony as his fingers twitched on the table. “There we go, seeing some more signs of life.” Tony joked, gently patting the kid's shoulder before he twisted about and opened the cooler to grab one of the drinks.

“He’s not awake yet.” Steve frowned.

“Yeah well, he doesn’t need to be awake to drink this,” Tony remarked despite knowing that Steve was right. Poking the straw into the container, Tony turned around and waited for the kid to be a bit more aware. It didn’t take long as Peter shifted on the bed, one of his hands coming up to rest on his stomach where the gauze was as his brow furrowed.

“Yeah, bet that stings kid but its all taken care of,” Tony assured the teen as he reached out with his free hand to rub the top of the kid's head. “Gotta wake up though I need you to drink this cause we both know how you feel about I.V.s.”

“Would that be necessary?” Steve frowned as he glanced at the juice box and then to Peter.

“He doesn’t wake up enough to get something in him I’ll dose him with so much sugar in his veins that he’ll think he’s on crack.” Tony held Steve’s gaze as he said this. “He needs food to fuel the healing Steve and right now his body is going on empty.”

Steve nodded his head as he continued to watch Tony try and rouse Peter enough to drink from the juice box. 

“I know it’s not flavored but frankly kid you screwed the pooch today, you’re lucky I’m not making you drink the strawberry ones.” Tony smiled as that earned him more of a grimace from the teen which he chose to interpret as a reaction to his threat and not the pain in the kid's gut. “Yeah, I know how much you love those.” He snarked

Peter’s hand remained on his stomach, but his head twisted back towards Bucky as the boys breathing which had picked up began to settle once more. It took a moment before Peter managed to peel his eyes open into slivers, just enough to see the owner of the heartbeat that he was currently focusing on. Bucky. Oh...That was weird, normally he focused on Mr. Stark. Peter frowned, right, Mr. Stark hadn’t been there just Bucky and Mr. Rogers. Peter shifted on the bed, groaning as it sent a spark of pain up his gut. 

“Yeah, no underoos no moving.” Tony set a hand on the boy's shoulder as if to anchor him there. “You don’t need to be moving, stay still.”

Peter made a pained noise as the sparks of pain in his gut began to settle once more, he shouldn’t move, he heard that much at least, and not just from Mr. Stark. His body was making it plainly known that moving wasn’t advised. Peeling his eyes open once more, Peter swallowed, his mouth dry and his voice chapped. “You have a nice heartbeat.” Well, that’s what he meant to say, what he really said was a muttered, slurred version of the word heartbeat.

Tony chuckled. “Yeah, he’s got a heartbeat, not dead yet.” Rubbing the boy's shoulder Tony sent Bucky a smirk. “Told you so.”

“He’s not grabbing onto me.”

Tony raised a brow at the man's taunt. “He’ll get there.”

Bucky hummed, not sure how to feel about that. He didn’t really like anyone touching him other than Steve, but the kid was nice enough and hadn’t really had any negative remarks or scenarios with him. The altercation at the airport was nothing compared to other things he’d endured in the last year. Bucky was prepared to put Peter under the ‘not a threat’ category that he and Sam had been working on. Dare he even consider putting him in with ‘friend’ category, but he held off for now. 

“Is there anything else he’ll need?” Steve frowned down at the disorderly teen. 

“Nah, just time, a lot of food, and a bit of a lecture from me when he’s cognizant enough to pout at me.”

Steve sighed. “Tony he’s hurt.”

Tony raised a brow. “He’s my spider I get to lecture him as I see fit and I see fit to tell him that he’s a stupid reckless kid who is now grounded for hotwiring his own damn suit. Again.”

“What?”

Tony shook his head. “It’s a long story, I’ll tell you later.” Steve nodded his head, confused but willing to wait. 

Peter slowly came a bit more aware, his stomach hurt something awful and it was also gnawing at him in hunger. Not a plus to the already unbearable pain, but that was just his lot in life. His ears were attuned to Bucky’s heartbeat and he was simply staring up at the man through lidded eyes. His last attempt at talking had failed, he wasn’t even sure what the others had heard because he had drifted off a bit amongst all their voices. Focused once more, Peter allowed his hand to come off of his stomach to reach out at Bucky to try and grab his arm or something, Peter wasn’t even sure what.

Tony snorted, nodding to the kid as Bucky frowned down at him. “What do I do?”

“I don’t know,” Tony remarked with a chuckle. “What do you feel like doing to a hurt teenager who wants a hug?”

Bucky shot a concerned look towards Stark. “He wants me to hug him?”

Tony laughed at the horror-filled response the assassin had given him, shrugging. “He gets pretty clingy.” Shaking his head at the befuddled man, Tony reached over and grabbed Peter’s arm, bringing it back to his wound gently. “There ya go underoos, hold that.” The boy hummed, clearly not aware of the order as his hand left his stomach not a moment later. Tony sighed. “He listens so well.”

Steve gave a small chuckle. “He’s definitely out of it...Is that the drugs or just healing?”

“Drugs...Healing he’s normally complaining. He’s just a sleepy little spider right now.” Tony said wistfully. "Here help me with his suit." Tony left the kid's hand to wander as he reached out to grab the edge of the boy's suit which was pulled down to his waist.

"Um, Tony are you sure about that, I mean what's-"

"It's just like my flight suit Steve." Tony rolled his eyes at how uncomfortable the man became. "And I really don't think he's got any equipment you don't know about." The sudden flush to the soldier's face made it worth, then feeling merciful Tony smiled. "Plus he's wearing shorts."

"Oh." Steve felt stupid, of course, the kid wouldn't go flying around town in a high tech suit with nothing on beneath it. Shaking his head, he helped the genius to gently pull the suit down the kid's limp form. The pair working in sync to pull the body tight suit down the length of the teen, revealing the shorts Tony had promised to be there and pale legs as the suit traveled down farther. Once it had been pulled free of the teen Tony threw it aside and grabbed a blanket from a nearby cabinet, throwing it over the kid's lap before telling the others. "And now we can tell him he's been dressed down by Captain America."

Bucky snorted, amused at how much that made Steve blush, he was sure the teen would have an equally amusing reaction.

"Tony!"

Chuckling, Tony ignored the not so subtle outrage on Steve's face as he reached out and snagged the boy's arm again when it went back towards Bucky, smirking at the man as he put it back on the teen's stomach. “Good job underoos, kept it right where I wanted it.” Tony snickered when the kid didn’t stay put.

Bucky sighed when after all this time the kid hadn't given up, not even after Stark's repeated moving the kid's arm. Finally, the assassin asked. “What do I have to do?”

“You don’t have to do anything,” Tony remarked with a grin.

Bucky scowled back at the man who was enjoying this. “Tony, just tell him what would help Peter.”

Tony smiled, honestly this time. “Hold his hand.” He waved at the kids searching grasp. “He just wants to touch people, I think it’s sensory or something since he was literally cut off from the world by drugs and is now waking up.”

Bucky nodded, that he could understand. Coming out of cryo over and over again had been jarring, all the resets had been worse. The kid had it bad if this was how he had to go about healing, so he took the kid's hand all the while unsure how that was helping.

Steve smirked as he watched Bucky hold Peter’s hand, Tony hadn’t been wrong Peter seemed content with that as he’d stopped shifting around on the bed. His eyes were even closed again, leaning forward a bit he questioned Tony. “Shouldn’t we be trying to get him to drink that?” He motioned to the juice box on the edge of the table near Tony.

“Hmm? Oh, yeah.” Tony held it out to Bucky. The man scowled. Tony tilted his head, jostled it and just said. “Just give it to him and tell him to drink it.”

“Why? Why can’t you?”

Tony cleared his throat and rose to prove to the man that he should listen to him when he told him something. “Hey, Pete, let go of Bucky’s hand.” Nothing. “I’ll buy you a car if you let go right now.” Nothing. Tony waved his hand to Bucky. 

“That doesn’t mean he’ll listen to me.” Bucky rounded on the man.

Fair enough. Tony jostled the juice box again. “Peter you need to drink this.” Nothing. He moved it closer to the kid's mouth and tried to suggest he drink it again by plying it at the kid's mouth and shaking his shoulder. Nothing. The kid did open his eyes but there really wasn’t all that much recognition there as the boy just stared up, despite Tony smiling at him. Nodding Tony looked up at Bucky. “Well?”

Bucky glared at him, but took the juice box, glared at it and then sighed in a disgruntled manner. He held it where Peter could see it and muttered. “Come on kid, you need to drink this.”

Peter tilted his head up at him, a confused expression on his face but an actual reaction that floored Bucky. “How-”

“Heartbeat.” Tony sang. “Focus on one thing, you good sir are the one thing.”

Steve's eyes widened. “Woah, he literally focuses on-”

“Yep.” Tony smiled at Bucky before waving his hand to the kid. “I’d like him not to die of starvation so-”

Bucky sighed but moved the drink closer. “Come on.” Thankfully Peter didn’t take much prodding when he realized it was coming from him. Bucky had to release his hand to help hold his head up so he could actually drink it but it worked. Peter moved his hand back to his stomach making Bucky send an obviously amused Stark a glare. The men stood there, just observing Peter as he drank from the provided juice box.

“How many calories are in this thing?” Bucky muttered when he felt it getting lighter as the boy sipped away at it.

Tony shook his head. “Would you believe me if I said 10,000?”

“No.” Bucky snorted.

Tony nodded his head. “Good, cause it’s closer to 12.” Steve and Bucky stared back at him in surprise. “It’s sugar guys, just pure fuel for him, a bit of fat and protein to try and help him round out until he can eat real food but mostly sugar.”

“He’s a twig.”

Tony chuckled. “Well Barnes, he burns excess of 18,000 calories on a normal day, more if he’s really gunning it. At the moment he’s been racing around town, got hurt, and is now fighting off the effects of a drug, healing, and replenishing his own blood supply.” All of this was said as Tony unpacked another juice box from the cooler and smiled at Bucky. “So yeah, he’s a twig, a twig who needs to eat.” He offered it to the man, Bucky sighed nodded his head. Steve took it from Tony to prep the straw.

“How much pizza does he really eat?”

Steve smirked at Bucky’s question, glancing at Tony as the man smiled and revealed how the normal order of pizza went. “Well, the first pizza is for me. I got about five for you two because I knew you're going to eat some and the rest are for him.” Tony smiled back at them. “You do the math.”

“Nine,” Steve muttered. “That’s a lot of pizza.”

“He doesn’t eat it all at once, it’s a couple meals, but it’s better to have food on hand than not.” Tony smiled as he watched the pair trade off juice boxes when Peter was done with the first. The kid was looking more aware, his eyes were moving about and his head had turned periodically. Wouldn’t be long before Peter was under his own faculties again. “So...Which one of you wants to be the one to tell him that you’ve been feeding him like a baby bird?”

He got glares from both men, Tony just smiled.

********

After the second juice box, Tony waved them off letting Peter relax on the bed while they talked and the kid drifted a bit. Tony couldn’t help but smirk each time he caught sight of the kid holding Bucky’s hand. He’d been resolute in that despite having finished his juice boxes, god this kid was adorable. So there Bucky, all intimidating ex-assassin of him was standing there holding a kid's hand.

Steve had been in the process of quizzing him about who else knew about Peter, at least as far as they were concerned. The obvious one had been Natasha or so Steve had thought, Tony had come clean and told him that the woman didn’t know Peter was Spider-man just that she was fond of Peter. Finding out Bruce knew, however, was a bit shocking.

“He’s worked with mutations, look at himself.” Tony scoffed. “I had to let him take a peek at the kid to make sure there wasn’t going to be anything else on the horizon.”

“And?”

Tony shook his head. “Kids as fit as a fiddle, no anomalies. Just plain old mutated teenager.”

Bucky snorted. “That’s not normal.”

“Says the man who has a metal arm made of a substance that most don’t know exist.” Tony smiled.

Bucky huffed at that, it wasn’t as if he’d built the damned thing. His gaze shot down to Peter in a flash when the kid's fingers tightened around his. The confused look on the kid's face had Bucky frowning, unsure what was going on. “Kid?”

“I’m holding your hand.”

Tony snickered. “And he lives.” The man cried dramatically, earning the teen's attention as Peter turned his head to the side to stare at him.

“Um...I feel drowsy.”

“That’s cause I put spidey down for a nap.” 

Peter crinkled his brow at that before twisting his head back towards Bucky, unfurling his fingers from around the man's metal hand. “Sorry.”

Bucky nodded his head, watching as Peter placed it over his stomach with a grimace. “You okay?”

Peter smiled tightly. “Yeah, I’m fine.” Giving a small sigh Peter looked over to Mr. Stark and muttered. “There’s a new construction site on thirty-fourth.”

Tony frowned. “And? This is New York kid there’s construction everywhere.” Peter gave him a flat look before looking down at his stomach pointedly “Oh...Wait, how the hell did you do that?” Tony waved a hand at the kid's stomach only to roll his eyes when Steve harassed him about his language. “Really Steve?” The man gave Tony a piercing look, smiling back at Peter, Tony asked again. “How’d it happen?”

“So I landed on a steel beam.” They nodded. “It was not anchored.” The men gave him a curious but frowning expression. “Neither was the other beam that I latched onto after the first one began to fall...Then it all kinda fell?”

Tony sighed. “Long way down kid?”

Peter smiled wanly. “I got out from under the heavy stuff...Just kinda missed the small stuff.” He looked down at his gut and grimaced. 

“That’s small?” Steve gave an imploring look to the kid.

“Compared to what else was there yeah.” Peter nodded. “That stuff would have skewered me.”

Tony took a deep breath. “Okay! Nope, do not go there underoos.” Peter winced apologetically at him, Tony shook his head instead. “We’ll have that talk about landing on things that you shouldn’t later...The important thing here is that your guts are still inside you.”

“Yay.”

Tony smirked at the teens less than stellar response, it earned him a dry snort from Bucky as well. “You’re on bed rest until you finish the rest of that.” He jerked his thumb over his shoulder to the cooler. Peter glanced over and made a pained face. “Mr. Stark-”

“Nope.” Tony held his gaze firmly. “Or I will personally see to it that the only flavor in that fridge until you and I fix that suit is strawberry.”

Peter made a blech face. “Fine.”

Tony smiled, reaching over to grab another one. He poked the straw into it and handed it over to the kid who was managing to get himself up onto his elbows only with a small pull to his features. “Let’s just move the bed, make it easier.”

“Thanks.” Peter sighed in relief when the men helped him to do that, it was a lot nicer to just relax and let the bed hold him up rather than doing it himself while his body was still protesting the wound in his side. It was as he took the juice box that Peter noticed something, he sent a look towards Mr. Stark. “I’m so sorry.”

“Huh?” Tony frowned. “What for?”

Peter gave him a look of disbelief. “My mask!”

Tony laughed as the kid figured out at long last that he was sans mask. “Yeah...About that.”

“I had it on, I swear. I don’t know how-”

Steve and Bucky shook their heads as the kid had a meltdown about it while Tony was too busy laughing at him. “Peter.” The kid looked at him with a flushed face. “Tony’s the one who gave you away. Pineapple.”

Peter frowned. “What? What’s pineapple got to do with me?”

“Pizza kid.” Tony shrugged. “Sorry.”

Peter rounded on the genius. “You made me lie for weeks!” Tony chuckled at how outraged the kid was. “I mean I had to make sure that I knew who I was supposed to be, how messed up is that?! I kept getting the schedules messed up and then I accidentally brought the suit with me one night and then-”

“Breathe kid.”

Peter took a shuddering breath, wincing as he did so. His hand cradled his wound but he smiled tightly at Bucky for the reminder. “I tried really hard.”

The assassin smirked. “Yeah. Drink.” He shoved the juice box at the kid when Steve handed it to him, having retrieved it from a laughing Tony. 

Peter sighed, taking the drink he began to suck on the straw. Mumbling around it. “These don’t taste good...You don’t want to try them.” Bucky smirked at the kid's warning as if he was anticipating the kid wanting to share them with him and Steve.

Tony rolled his eyes at the boy's complaint. “Alright underoos, I’m gonna run this mess down to the lab while these two supervise your snack time. I will return after I have been thoroughly been chewed out by your hot aunt.”

Peter made a face as Mr. Stark took the suit and left. “Ew.”

“What?” Steve smiled.

“He always says aunt May’s hot.”

The men chuckled. “Tony’s just like that Peter.” The teen nodded as he went back to his milkshake. It was a few minutes later as he was finishing up the juice box that Peter stopped and muttered. “Thanks.” The men stared back at him blankly. “For helping...That must have been weird.”

Steve sighed, admitting. “It was a bit shocking...You were bleeding quite a bit and we’re not exactly knowledgable in what your body can and cannot do.”

Peter smiled. “Yeah, but you just stayed there and told me it would be okay...I mean I knew it would be, I’ve had worse but...The blood always kinda puts me into shock.”

Steve nodded. “Don’t like the sight of blood huh?”

Peter bit his lip. “I’m used to blood...It was more how, the way it looked.”

Steve glanced at Bucky, the other man shrugged not getting it either. “What do you mean?”

Peter glanced down at his stomach, swallowing tightly. “Like a gunshot.”

Steve sucked in a sharp breath, seeing out of the side of his vision as Bucky tensed. “I was there when uncle Ben was shot...It’s so...They don’t really look like you’d expect, like in the movies.” Peter chuckled before wincing and holding his side more.

“No, they never do.” Steve agreed. “I’m sorry you had to go through that.”

Peter nodded his head. “Aunt May doesn’t blame me.”

“Why would she?” Bucky’s voice was gravely as he questioned the teen.

“Cause it was my fault.”

“Peter.” Steve shook his head. “That wasn’t your fault.”

Peter smiled wanly back at the man. “He only went out because we got into a fight...I could have stopped it, I’m fast enough, but I-I just- I was trying to be normal...But I’m not normal and uncle Ben died because I was too scared to do anything even when I could.”

Bucky grit his teeth, not that Peter noticed at the time. “That’s horseshit.”

Peter looked up startled by the sudden response from the silent man.

“Bucky.” Steve glared at his friend, but Bucky shook his head.

“How long had you been like this?” Bucky challenged the kid.

“A month or two.”

Bucky nodded. “Could you climb walls?”

“Well...Yeah.”

“Could you?” Bucky challenged the kid before phrasing it differently. “Or did you fall all the damn time cause you didn’t know what the hell you were doing?”

Peter blinked back at him, then muttered a shy. “Oh.”

Bucky gave a stern nod when the teen clued into where he was going. “Just 'cause you were strong or fast or could climb walls didn’t mean you wouldn’t screw it up because you weren’t used to it. Even if you’d tried...It probably wouldn’t have changed anything.”

Steve smirked as Bucky read the kid the riot act, making it known to Peter that he wasn’t to blame for his uncle's death.

“Still feels that way.”

Bucky gave a nod, he understood that. “Wasn’t me who hurt people but it still feels that way too.”

Steve stared in shock to what Bucky had just revealed openly to Peter. Peter just smiled back at his friend, it seemed that they had some kind of camaraderie around the subject. Peter sighed when Bucky shoved a new juice box at him.

“I can have regular ones now.”

“Drink it.”

Steve smirked, choosing to stay out of that argument.

*******

“You’re sure he’ll be okay?”

Tony snorted at Steve and his current state of uncertainty as Peter swung off the top of the building. “He’s fine, you saw his stomach, all better.”

“Still.”

Rolling his eyes, Tony turned around and left the man to continue staring out the window. Barnes was on the couch where he’d been hanging out with Steve and Peter as the boy recuperated from his little accident. Peter’s aunt had called for a check-up and after conversing with the kid Tony felt it safe for him to go swinging off into the sunset, provided of course that he use one of the spare suits and be linked up to Friday the whole way back.

“He always like this when someone kicks his puppy?” 

Bucky snorted at the man's joke, smiling when Steve turned to glare at Tony for the remark. “Tony, he’s just a kid.”

“A mutated kid.”

Steve sighed. “That’s not the point.”

“Seems like it...I mean, do you think a normal kid would go leaping off of tall buildings?” Tony canted his head a bit. “Cause I don’t. Mutated kids, however, do stuff like that.” Tapping his chin, the man smirked. “I mean...You were what 18 when you went in fighting nazis and running headlong into turrets?”

Steve glared. “That was-”

“That was a mutated teenager doing stupid shit for the right reasons.” Tony smiled back as he refused to let Steve get a word in edgewise. “Deal with it, he’s not going to stop so if you want to be a mother hen at least do it the right way.” Tony walked away.

“Do it right?” Steve walked to the opening of the hallway staring after Tony, the man called back down the hallway.

“Teach him history, the kid needs to get that grade up.”

Steve sighed as Bucky started laughing from behind him. Turning he glared at Bucky. “Really?”

The man shrugged. “Starks got you there.” He grunted as Steve came to lounge on the couch and not so subtly hit him in the stomach.

“Just for that, I’m telling Sam that you were having ideas of hiking across Nepal despite us both being restricted to the compound.”

Bucky rolled his eyes at the weak threat. “It was an interesting documentary and I’ve been to Nepal.”

Steve smirked at first only to mutter in a guarded manner when he realized 'why' Bucky had been to Nepal. “That wasn’t you.”

Bucky hummed. “Pretty sure I fought a bear.” He smiled at Steve.

Steve laughed. “Okay, that part was you.”

*********

Steve hadn’t really thought too much about how their lives would change by going back to the states or how Bucky might adapt to living free of Hydra but under similar oppressive rules because he wasn’t understood. He surely didn’t think that Tony would be willing to adapt without cutting remarks, and yeah there were a few of those every now and then, but their prominence had severely decreased the longer they were there. 

Bucky, on the other hand, was starting to recover, he was nowhere near the person that Steve lost in the war and truthfully Steve realized that the man he’d lost wasn’t coming back. However, this new Bucky was a good man, a good friend and Steve was happy to see Bucky happy and that’s the thing that was the most surreal is that Bucky was happy. 

He had days where he refused to talk, refused to even look people in the eye and that was something Steve had to come to understand. Sam was a saint in that regard and then he had days like today where Bucky was presently trying to teach Peter a sophisticated knot he knew only for the teen to be adamant that he could replicate it with his webbing, the pair now arguing about how to use his webbing to tie this very complicated knot. Why Peter thought he might need to do that with the webbing when it was complicated just in regular rope Steve didn’t know, but it was keeping them occupied and providing endless entertainment for him and Tony. Bucky kept getting stuck in the webbing as he tried to fix Peter's mistakes, forgetting that the 'rope' in question was sticky webbing and not rope. Forcing Peter to stop what he was doing to free him, start over, mess up and then rinse and repeat.

Steve smirked over at Tony, the man shrugged but didn’t bother to stop the pair. Nodding his head, Steve questioned the two frowning men who were fighting a losing battle against the web fluid. “So pizza?”

Peter twisted his head, smiling. “Pineapple.”

“NO!”

“Yeah.” Bucky nodded, backing Peter up against Tony's shout of revulsion.

Steve chuckled as he got up to make the call, leaving Tony to berate the pair of them about the heinous crime against humanity that was putting pineapple on pizza.


	7. Snippets

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just fun little snippets that never fit with the story but that I ended up writing anyway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here it is folks the last little bit of story, these are just little snippets that I wrote along the way and that I didn't want to just let waste away. So enjoy, also there is a language key in the bottom of the story for the few lines of the Russian text. Enjoy!

“Are you sure about this?”

Peter nodded even as he was hanging down from the ceiling from his webbing, Steve sent a worried look to Bucky. The man shrugged, he wasn’t participating, part of his therapy program said no violence, even if that violence was towards a willing party.

Steve blew out a long breath. “Alright.”

Peter swung down toes out prepared to take Steve off of his feet, but Steve deflected the kid with his shield, the dull twang of flesh hitting vibranium made Steve wince, for all of a second before the kid was suddenly on his back and pulling him and his shield upwards with a bit of webbing. Steve grunted as he fell to his back after throwing the kid over his shoulder, but not before taking his own shield in the head as Peter jerked it upright as they rolled. Peter was already on his feet by the time Steve got to his knees. His shield was firmly in the kid's hands. Steve blew out a long breath. “I’m getting that back.”

Peter jumped on his heels a wide grin on his face. “If you say so.”

Bucky laughed before telling the kid. “Go for his knees.”

“Bucky!”

**********

Peter groaned. “This is too hard.”

Bucky snorted from the couch where he was ‘watching’ television. “Says the kid doing Nasa level math.”

Peter tilted his head back to smirk at the assassin who was staring back at him with a bored expression. “ Math is fun.” The disgruntled look he received in-kind said the man thought otherwise.

A clearing of a throat had Peter tensing, he sighed and nodded back to Mr. Rogers. Peter droned out what they’d been working on “Alright...The year of 1547 Ivan the terrible became king of Russia.”

Bucky snorted. “Wrong.”

Peter sent a glower towards the man. “Bucky either help or stay quiet.” Steve gave the man a measured look. Bucky shrugged neither agreeing or denying that input. Sighing Steve smiled back at Peter.

“Um...Right...Not a king.” The teen's brow crinkled up when he couldn’t recall the information. “Does this really matter? He’s dead and he was obviously a horrible person with a name like that. I mean he’s in history books as Ivan the terrible. Who would want to be called terrible-”

Bucky was laughing at the kids rambling, a sound that Steve relished and seemed to coincide with Peter’s visits to the compound. Still, he had a job to do. “Peter. 1547, Ivan the terrible.”

Peter slumped over the table. “Karen would tell me the answer.”

“Karen doesn’t get to help you with your test tomorrow, you have to do that by yourself.” Steve chimed in easily. “So, Ivan the terrible.”

“Russia sucks.”

“Da.”

Peter twisted his head to stare at Bucky, a smirk coming to his face when the man spoke Russian just to say yes. Steve sighed, giving a sharp look to Bucky. “Seriously?”

Bucky smirked and with a clear tongue stated. “YA mogu nauchit' yego russkomu yazyku, prezhde chem ty smozhesh' nauchit' yego istorii.” (1)

Peter’s eyes widened. “Woah. What did you say?”

Steve sighed. “I’m sure we don’t want to know.” Sending a disapproving look to his friend who was giving him a proud expression on his face.

**********

“Are you sure? I’m not sure I’ll get it right.”

Bucky gave a nod, he’d been waiting for this opportunity and thankfully Peter found humor in all of this too. “Just do it.” He shoved the kid forward. “He’s been wanting to know how it went.”

Peter nodded, clearing his throat as he walked into the kitchen with Bucky. Steve twisted about. “Hey Peter, how was school?”

Peter looked at Bucky, got a nod and then with a small grimace managed to get out. “Segodnya ya mnogomu nauchilsya v shkole i smog sdat' ekzamen po istorii” (2)

Steve stared back at the kid, nodded and then glared at Bucky. “Not funny.”

Bucky laughed, patting Peter on the shoulder. “Good one kid...Accent still sucks.”

Peter rolled his eyes at that. “Well, I wasn’t even sure if I was saying it right.”

“You did.” Bucky nodded his head pleased at the kid's progress. “Put him out of his misery.” He waved a hand to Steve who was scowling at him.

“Oh...Right, I passed my history test.”

Steve smiled. “Glad to hear it.” He pointed at Bucky. “Don’t let him rope you into things alright?”

Peter smiled impishly, sending a look towards Bucky before smiling back at Steve. “Da.”

Steve threw his hands up and walked away as Bucky laughed, Peter smiled back at the assassin. “Mr. Stark’s going to love seeing that later.”

Bucky gave a nod, at least they had Stark on their side when it came to harassing Steve.

“Da.”

Peter snickered.

********

“I leave for two days and you’re learning Russian?”

Peter sent him an odd look. “Mr. Stark you were gone a week.”

Tony waved a hand. “Not important, I was checking in throughout the entire time I was gone and you failed to mention this.”

Peter shrugged. Tony repeated the gesture. “What does that mean?” Peter shrugged again. “Cute. Real cute underoos.” Tony nodded his head. “Just for that, you get to explain how exactly you managed to melt a part of your web shooter. I’m listening.”

“Oh...Er, that.”

Tony lifted his brow. “Yeah, that.”

Peter bit his lip, on a whim daring to say. “Eto byl neschastnyy sluchay.” (3)

Tony’s face went steel. “Get out, you are no longer my spiderling.” He pointed towards the door to the lab. “Take the ex-Russian assassin with you, a going away parting gift.”

Peter laughed as Mr. Stark began to twist him about and shove him towards the door, shaking his head. “It was an accident, Mr. Stark.”

Tony scoffed as they came just shy of the door. “You learning Russian was not an accident, it was a plot against my life.”

Peter snorted at the man’s dramatics, twisting about he explained. “It was not...Mr. Rogers really hates it.” He smiled.

“Oh, I bet and we’ll get back to that but it still doesn’t answer my question.”

“I already answered you.”

Tony scowled. “Russian doesn’t seem like a viable way to destroy your web-shooter kid.”

“No.” Peter laughed, shaking his head. “It was an accident, my web-shooter.”

“Ah.” Tony chuckled at the miscommunication. “Well, in that case, get to work.” Tony dragged the teen back over to the workbench and tapped where the melted device was. He patted the teens back as he made to enter another part of the lab to work on his own project. “You don’t get heathen pizza until that’s no longer fused together.”

“But Mr. Stark!”

“No, and you get penalized anytime you use Russian to respond to me!” Tony huffed under his breath. “Should have known better than to take in a Russian assassin.”

“He’s from New York.”

Tony paused, shook his head and twisted about to stalk back towards Peter who he had left on the other side of the workshop. The kid twisted about, waving his hands. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean-Aw.” Peter slouched as Mr. Stark put a set of specially made headphones over his head before pointing at him and speaking in what could only be chastizement of epic proportions. “I can’t hear you.” He got a smile. “That was the point wasn’t it?” Peter drolled, earning a nod that he mirrored. “Yeah, thought so.” Mr. Stark patted his head and then walked away, leaving Peter with the headgear on. Sighing, Peter twisted about and got back to work, smirking to himself he muttered aloud. “Teper', kak mne eto ispravit'?” (4)

Tony stopped what he was doing, glared back over his shoulder to the kid who was literally muttering in Russian and then spoke. “Friday, let Steve know that if his boy toy doesn’t stop teaching my spiderling Russian there will be consequences.”

“Message has been sent.”

Nodding Tony blew out a long stream of air through his nose and got back to work, for all of a second. “Damn it.” Tony stormed to his own workbench and pulled out a set of headphones, slamming them angrily over his head to block out the sounds of the kid muttering in Russian. “Friday sync me up and play some music.”

“Syncing now.”

Tony sighed in relief when his playlist began to filter into the headset. Finally, some peace and quiet.

********

“Been hearing a lot about you, Peter.”

Peter smiled at Sam, he’d been coming around a lot to help Bucky but they'd never officially met. “Yeah?”

“Yeah, sour bastard likes you so you must be good.” Peter laughed as Bucky sent a dark look at the cheerful man. “And on that note, I need to go make it possible for him to have more than that facial expression.” Sam teased the man. “Let’s go out back you could use some fresh air.”

“Have fun,” Peter called only to snort when Bucky flipped him off, it was so strange to know that he was friends with a surely man like Bucky. Sure he was a lot of fun and he didn’t have a problem talking around him and Mr. Rogers but he was pretty tight-lipped around anyone else. How Sam managed to get enough out of him for his to qualify as therapy Peter wasn’t sure.

“Ah, they back at it?”

Peter nodded his head. “Yeah, he made Bucky glare at him and he’s only been here like two minutes.” Peter looked over at Steve who was smiling as he watched Bucky and Sam talk outside.

“So normal huh?”

Peter snickered. “Pretty much. OH, I gotta go.” He waved at his ears before jogging away.

Steve smiled, god he loved that kid, Peter respected Bucky’s boundaries enough to either leave or put on special headphones so he never overheard the man’s sessions with Sam. Bucky had admitted to him that he was a little cautious about the kid being around when his therapy started due to what they’d be talking about but before Steve could even mention it to Peter the kid had just noticed Sam there asked what he was doing and then just nodded and put headphones in before loudly stating to all of them that he couldn’t hear a damn thing. Steve had told him not to curse, but later, had thanked him as it had put Bucky at ease.

*********

“Friday news!”

Bucky and Steve tensed when Tony came running into the room, that was never a good sign. Sure enough, the news came on and zeroed in on what Tony wanted to see thanks to Friday’s integration. Spider-man was presently holding a bus onto a bridge with his bare hands so it couldn’t go over into the river.

“Damn it.” Tony cursed. “Friday fire up the- Never-mind,” Tony smirked as he watched Peter shoot a line of webbing to a pile on in the center of the bridge and began to layer lines of webs in a criss-cross fashion all while never letting go of the bus. He managed to make a giant tether system of braided webs before securing it to the back of the bus before pulling the entire thing back away from the edge of the bridge. Once the bus was on solid ground the kid fell over but gave a thumbs up almost as if he knew they were watching.

“Nice one,” Bucky commented.

“Boss, Peter would like me to alert you to an incident on a bridge.”

“Cute Peter, real cute.”

Steve laughed. “Hey, he told you about it.”

Tony glared at the man. “Friday tell him he’s grounded.” The man smiled as they watched the news footage that showed Spider-man throwing his hands in the air upon being told such a thing.

“Boss, Peter would like you to know that he thinks that’s not cool.”

Rolling his eyes at the teen's response, the genius returned. “Tell Mr. not cool to get his butt back here, after that he needs a strawberry smoothie.”

Bucky sent a smirk towards Steve, the latter was shaking his head. “He’ll never come back if you say that Tony.”

Tony laughed waving the man’s concern off as he headed to the lab. “Sure he will, I have candy.”

“Pretty sure the kid can get his own,” Bucky replied to Steve as the man didn’t bother to retort to Tony’s claims.

“More than likely Buck, but here he gets to taunt Tony in Russian as payback for making him drink a strawberry smoothie.” Steve held his friend's gaze, Bucky smirked, he was not sorry for doing that. Both men looked up by habit alone when Friday chimed.

“Captain Rogers, Peter would like me to request that you hide a Vanilla smoothie for him.”

Steve laughed right alongside Bucky, the kid was a genius, of course, he would have thought to get around Tony’s enforced punishment. 

“Tell him I’ll get him one if he tells me what he got on his History final.”

Bucky snorted. “Strawberry it is.”

Steve sent him a look. “Do you know?”

Bucky shook his head. “Just kept muttering you don’t want to know...English and Russian.”

Steve sighed, closing his eyes in a grimace when Friday replied. “Peter would like me to say that Strawberry is fine.”

Bucky chuckled. “Told you.”

**********

Tony smirked, raising a brow to the men. They shrugged, keeping his voice down Tony remarked. “He’s mine, go find your own mutated teenager.”

Steve chuckled quietly as Bucky glared back at Stark. Peter was presently passed out across them, movie night had come shortly after a bank heist gone wrong and the kid was tired. Peter hadn’t even made it past the previews before he was out cold, not that any of them blamed the kid. 

“Kids beat.”

Tony hummed to Bucky’s assessment. “Saw the dashcam footage, it was wild alright.”

Bucky screwed up his face, sending a perplexed look at Steve. “He watched his cameras.”

“Oh.” Nodding Bucky questioned. “And?”

Tony shrugged. “Kid threw a chandelier at some poor bastard who did not have the ability to run but seemed to think that the kid wouldn’t fight back when being shot at.”

Bucky tensed, but Steve grabbed his forearm. “He’s fine.”

Tony smirked at the obvious show of concern for the kid. “Kids right as rain, not a hole in him. That other guy...” Tony waved his hand back and forth.

“Tony.”

The man chuckled at the reproachful tone Steve took with him. “Eh, he deserved it. Kid showed him that stealings bad, shooting at innocent wall climbing spiders is worse and that chandeliers are heavy as fuck.”

Bucky snorted, now more amused that the danger appeared to be significantly lower than he’d anticipated. Looking down at the teen in his lap, Bucky asked. “He just let it fall on him?”

Before Tony could reply, a drowsy Peter muttered. “on eto zasluzhil, on byl podl.” (5)

Bucky laughed, taking great pleasure in translating for Steve and by extension Tony. “He deserved it, he was mean.”

Tony chuckled. “You show em, kid.” Leaning over to ruffle the kid's hair, he suggested to the super-soldier. “Take his spider butt to bed.”

“We will.”

All three men snorted when Peter gave a very sleepy. “But movie night.”

********

“Do you really think this is a good idea?” Steve sighed as he watched an exuberant Peter sit down at the dining room table with Bucky. The latter was smirking, obviously, game for Peter’s little stunt.

“It’ll be fun.”

Steve shook his head, making it known how he thought this would end. “You’re going to break the table and Tony isn’t going to happy to hear how that came about.”

Peter made a dismissive sound as he put his elbow on the table and waited for Bucky to do the same. Peter was going against the man’s Vibranium arm in an arm-wrestling match, just to see who was stronger.

“Or you’ll break Bucky’s arm which Tony will also not find amusing.”

Bucky snorted, not put out at the prospect of Stark complaining about fixing his arm. “Ready kid?”

Peter nodded his head, he tightened his and in the cool metal one before stating. “GO!”

Steve sighed as he watched the two struggle for dominance, grimacing when he heard a groaning sound and disturbingly unsure if it was the table or Bucky’s arm. Either way, it continued as the two men refused to back down. Peter had started behind Bucky as the man had done this numerous times while in the army when they had time to spare, but the kid was strong and quickly retook the ground he’d lost. They were going back and forth by mere inches.

“Kid’s strong,” Bucky grunted as he continued to pull against Peter’s arm.

Peter made a strained noise in recognition of what Bucky had stated but refused to use up precious energy to talk as he struggled to compensate for the man’s arm which seemed to refuse to let Peter win.

Steve sat back, shaking his head it was clear that they were at a stalemate. “You two aren’t going to like the result, you’re evenly matched it’s just a matter of who tires first.”

Bucky shook his head. “Nah.”

Peter nodded his head to agree, he could keep going for hours. Steve smirked, watching on as the pair struggled, inching one way and then the other as they shifted their arms on the table to try and gain extra footing against their opponent. The groaning sound that Steve had initially heard had to have been Bucky’s arm because it wasn’t happening anymore which undoubtedly meant the mechanics inside the arm were compensating for the sudden strain. If his friend managed to break the arm Steve knew that Tony would read them the riot act and refuse to fix it until they ‘learned’ their lesson. 

“Ugh.” Peter groaned as he fought against the man. “Your metal arm sucks.”

Bucky snorted. “Vibranium.”

“Whatever.” Peter grit his teeth.

“Strong as me,” Bucky informed the kid.

“Lies.” Peter rasped. “It’s cheating.”

Bucky snorted at the lame rebuttal as the kid struggled against him, Bucky was finding the kids strength just as daunting but smirked when Peter had to adjust himself again in an attempt not to have his arm slide backward off the table. Both men looked at each other sharply when there was a sudden pop, Bucky pulled back releasing Peter's hand not a moment too soon before the kid fell forward as the table collapsed in the center. 

Bucky laughed as Peter groaned from where he’d fallen over the table.

“I told you so,” Steve muttered as he came around to help Peter up from the broken table. Peter rubbed his chest where the table had embedded itself upon breaking in two. The teen pouted. “And we were getting somewhere too.”

“No, you weren’t.” Steve gave the boy a pointed look. “And now the tables broken.”

Peter frowned down at the table a moment, yeah Mr. Stark wouldn’t like that. Glancing back to Bucky who was across from him and had managed to back off in time not to fall over a table, Peter asked. “Help?”

Bucky tilted his head in silent question. “Hold the table together with Mr. Rogers.”

Bucky frowned at the odd request glancing towards Steve who looked equally confused.

“What? Peter wh-”

“I’ll be right back!” Peter ran down the hallway to go to his room to retrieve something. Leaving the two men to stare at each other in confusion.

“Why does he want us to hold it together?”

Steve shook his head. “Who knows. He’s probably getting duct tape or something.”

Bucky chuckled as he looked down at the table that was split down the middle. It wasn’t exactly a small table, duct tape wasn’t going to cut it.

“Okay.” A somewhat breathless Peter stated as he ran back over to them, frowning. “Come on, hold it.” He waved a hand at the table. “Trust me, I can fix it.”

Steve shook his head but with Bucky’s help, they righted the broken parts of the table and pieced them back together. “Now what?” Steve glanced down when he saw Peter go beneath the table.

“Kid?” Bucky frowned. “What falling over on it wasn’t enough? You wanna take a crack on the head with it?”

“Ha-Ha,” Peter muttered from beneath the table, a moment later the teen scurried back from beneath it and nodded. “Alright, let it go.”

The man did as asked only to pause, the table stayed in one place. “How-”

Peter held up his wrist with a smirk, his web-shooter in place. Bucky laughed at the kid's genius.

“Peter that doesn’t last.” Even as he rebuked the kid's idea Steve was smiling at the sharp thinking teen.

“Well yeah.” Peter nodded. “But it only has to stay in shape for an hour or two, if Mr. Starks here when it falls apart he won’t think anything of it and since the webbing dissolves there won’t be any proof.”

Steve sighed as Bucky started laughing at Peter’s plot to keep this a secret. “Peter,” Steve tiredly muttered the boy's name. “Friday records everything.”

“So?” Peter challenged. “Mr. Stark’s not going to look back at the footage because he thinks the table will suddenly break itself.”

Okay, Peter kinda had him there. “I’m not lying to Tony about a broken table when I already told you two that you shouldn’t have done that.”

Bucky scowled at his friend who was taking all the fun out of this, what was better than an arm wrestling match with a strong ass teen who could handle it? Not to mention pulling one over on Stark was amazing, he glanced over to Peter and with no compassion stated. “Zakin'te yego, ya broshu yego v shkaf, poka Stark ne uvidit slomannyye stoly” (6)

Peter frowned a moment as he tried to decipher what Bucky had said, the man was patient and was waiting with a smile on his face. Peter’s eyes widened when he got the gist of it, snickering back at the man’s idea.

“I don’t want to know,” Steve uttered with a sharp look to Bucky when he turned to tell Peter that they had to tell Tony about the table he paused. “Peter-What are you doing?” Steve closed his eyes for some inane reason when the kid shot him with web fluid, afraid of getting hit in the face. That didn’t happen though, the webbing went somewhere else. Sighing he opened his eyes to see Peter smiling at him, he spared a passing glance to his now webbed hands as they were plastered at either side of himself. “Are you done?”

“No,” Bucky commented as he threw Steve onto his shoulder and began to cart him down the hallway all the while listening to him bitch about it. “Web his mouth.”

Peter laughed. “No, this stuff tastes horrible.”

“Get duct tape then.”

“Bucky!”

“Alright.” Peter ran off down the hallway to do just that, Bucky walked into his and Steve’s bedroom, throwing the man onto the bed with a smirk. Steve glared back at him. “I’ll get out.”

Bucky shrugged, he already knew that. “Not the point.”

Steve sighed but played along as he asked. “What’s the point?”

“Letting the kid have one over on Stark.”

Steve smiled at that. “Buck he doesn’t need to lie about a broken table to feel like he got away with something.”

The assassin shrugged. “Probably not, he’s always getting into shit...But this is fun.”

Steve smiled at the easy explanation as to why he was helping Peter with this kidnapping, sighing Steve let his head fall backward on the bed. “How long do I have to stay here?”

Bucky smirked, he knew the man couldn’t say no to him and Peter. “Depends on whether or not the kid’s going to come back periodically to web you up again...Stark might not be back for a few hours.”

Steve tilted his head up to glare at his smirking friend, sighing when Peter ran into the room with a large roll of duct tape. “Peter, I really don’t need you to do that.” Peter paused, gave a skeptical look at the man and then glanced at Bucky as if to ask what he should do. The assassin held out his hand and the teen handed the item over without any complaint.

“Thanks Buck...Buck? Buck-mph.”

Peter laughed as Bucky took the duct tape and despite Mr. Rogers assuming that the man wouldn’t actually use it. Bucky climbed onto the bed and with no remorse duct-taped Steve’s mouth shut with a grin. Once the man was secure, Bucky climbed off the bed and gave a pleased nod to the glaring Steve. 

“There, now he won’t be able to yell at you from the other room.”

Peter snorted as the man referenced his ability to hear the compound at large. “I think he’d be yelling at you.” Steve gave a strained nod.

“Yeah, but you’d have to hear that too.”

Peter hummed. “Good point. Okay, Mr. Rogers, we’ll be back.” Steve made noises despite Peter leaving him in the loving hands of his friend, Bucky just smirked at him as he followed the kid out. “Ten bucks says Stark doesn’t even ask about the table when he sees Steve.”

Steve blew out a breath through his nose as Bucky said that while closing the door, he glared up at the ceiling when he heard Peter take the bet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Language Key
> 
> 1)YA mogu nauchit' yego russkomu yazyku, prezhde chem ty smozhesh' nauchit' yego istorii
> 
> I can teach him Russian before you can teach him history
> 
> 2)Segodnya ya mnogomu nauchilsya v shkole i smog sdat' ekzamen po istorii
> 
> I learned a lot at school today and managed to pass my history test
> 
> 3)Eto byl neschastnyy sluchay.
> 
> It was an accident.
> 
> 4)Teper', kak mne eto ispravit'?
> 
> Now how do I fix this?
> 
> 5)on eto zasluzhil, on byl podl.
> 
> he deserved it, he was mean.
> 
> 6)Zakin'te yego, ya broshu yego v shkaf, poka Stark ne uvidit slomannyye stoly
> 
> Web him up, I'll throw him into a closet until Stark sees the tables broken


End file.
